Sometimes you have to play good moves

The US Championships has just started in St Louis, once again attracting a strong field. Caruana, Nakamura and So are the top seeds, and given the gap between themselves and the rest of the field, should take the top 3 spots. But as this is an olympiad year, the rest of the field might be aiming for the sort of performance that gets you on the defending champions team.
One player who has got off to a good start is former Doeberl Cup winner Varuzhan Akobian. He scored a 25 move win over Alexander Onischuk, using the Dutch Defence. Playing through the game it seemed that White was making most of the aggressive moves, but as it turned out, this only forced good replies from Akobian. Around move 18, Akobian suddenly got his d pawn running and after Onischuk failed to find the best defence it was all over.


Onischuk,Alexander (2672) - Akobian,Varuzhan (2647) [A84]
US-ch Men 2018 Saint Louis (1), 18.04.2018

1. d4 e6 2. c4 f5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. g3 d5 5. Bg2 c6 6. Nh3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Qc2 dxc4 9. e4 e5 10. exf5 exd4 11. Ne2 c5 12. Qxc4+ Kh8 13. Ng5 Nc6 14. Bf4 Bxf5 15. Nf7+ Rxf7 16. Qxf7 Rb8 17. Bxc6 bxc6 18. Rfe1 d3 19. Bxd6 Qxd6 20. Nc3 d2 21. Re7 Rg8 22. Rxa7 Bg4 23. Qe7 Qxe7 24. Rxe7 Nd5 25. Re2 d1Q+ 0-1