By Alejandro Ramirez
Every tournament has its favorites. Even in tournaments as strong as the 2015 U.S. Chess Championship -- where each of its 12 participants were grandmasters -- there were clearly a few standouts who seemed more likely to take the throne. This was also the case at the Saint Louis Open on April 17-19 – but as with every good tournament, there were many, many surprises from the get go.