2024 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship Preview

Octobers in St. Louis are all about championships, even during years when the Cardinals do not make the postseason. As has become an autumnal tradition over the past two decades, the 2024 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship begin Friday, October 11, in St. Louis, with GM Fabiano Caruana and IM Carissa Yip each looking to defend their 2023 titles.

Each event will consist of a 12-player, 11-round Round Robin tournament from October 11 through 23, with playoffs (if needed) on Friday, October 24th. Games begin daily at 1:00 p.m., CDT, with rest days after rounds four and eight. The time control for each round will be 40 moves in 90 minutes, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one. The full schedule can be found here.

The total prize fund this year is $250,000, with $55,000 for first in the Open and $35,000 for first in the Women’s tournament. The full distribution of prizes can be found here.

Opening — The drawing of lots at the opening ceremony (Photo courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

In the Open, all five members of the 2024 FIDE Olympiad team will be competing, with GMs Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So leading the way. The quintet will be joined by veteran and former Olympiad team member GM Sam Shankland as well as a number of young (and even younger) up-and-comers. Shankland, Caruana, and So are the only former champions in the field, with Shankland having won in 2018, So winning in each of 2017, 2020, and 2021, and Caruana in 2016, 2022, and 2023. The remaining Olympiad teammates — GMs Leinier Dominguez, Levon Aronian, and Ray Robson — are each still hunting for their first title.

Champions of all ages! From left: So, Yu, Mishra, Aronian, Caruana. Photos courtesy SLCC

Yoo — Champions of all ages! From left: So, Yu, Mishra, Aronian, Caruana. Photos courtesy SLCC

In order of descending age, the remaining six players are GM Grigoriy Oparin (27), GM Sam Sevian (23), GM Awonder Liang (21), GM Hans Niemann (21), GM Christopher Yoo (17), and GM Abhimanyu Mishra (15). Yoo and Mishra are the 2024 U.S. Junior and 2023 U.S. Junior champions, respectively, and are each appearing in their second U.S. Championship. Oparin is the only player making his championship debut, having switched federations recently from Russia. The full roster can be found here.

The collegiate contingent: Yip (left), Liang, and Yu (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Likewise, in the Women’s event, the entire 2024 Olympiad squad will be in attendance as well. Reigning champion IM Carissa Yip is one of the favorites, hot off her individual gold and 2600+ performance rating last month in Budapest. Joining her will be her Olympiad teammates IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (who came within a few moves of catching Yip last year), GM Irina Krush, IM Anna Zatonskih, and IM Alice Lee. Former Olympiad competitors IM Nazi Paikidze, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, and WGM Jennifer Yu will also reunite with the former teammates in St. Louis this year.

Begim — A number of this year's competitors have boasted great results at SLCC over the years. From left: Tokhirjonova, Krush, Lee, Zatonskih, Krush, Yu (Photos courtesy SLCC)

Between Yip (who also won in 2021), Krush (1998, 2007, 2010, 2012 through 2015, 2020), Zatonskih (2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011), IM Nazi Paikidze (2016, 2018), and WGM Jennifer Yu (2019, 2022), a combined 18 championships have been won by the field (with Krush accounting for just shy of half of them!). It's only a matter of time before IM Alice Lee joins this vaunted list, as the 15-year old is coming off her own silver medal performance in Budapest and her first American Cup title earlier this year, but it's hard to say whether this year will be her year.

Of the four players rounding out the field, WGM Thalia Cervantes is the most regular guest, as the 22-year-old will be making her fifth consecutive appearance. FM Megan Lee will be back for her third championship, after missing last year, and WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan will be back after last year’s debut. Finally, 15-year-old FM Rose Atwell is the only newcomer to the national stage. Atwell finished only a half-point behind Lee in this year’s Girls’ Junior Championship, and looks to make a mark in her first U.S. Women’s Championship. The full roster can be found here.

The photo speaks for itself (Photo courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Coverage will begin daily at 1:20 p.m. CDT, with commentary from GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Christian Chirila, and WGM Katerina Nemcova. The broadcast can be followed live on Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch channels.

Chess Life Online will be providing daily recaps of each round’s action, featuring annotations from IM Robert Shlyakhtenko, FM Davis Zong, WGM Katerina Nemcova, and FM Zoey Tang.