2025 U.S. Championships: Sun is Shining, Caruana is Cruising, but Pourkashiyan Upsets Yip

Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield rings the bell at the start of round 1, with Chess Life Editor John Hartmann spotted in the background (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Every year, we witness a dozen each of the top American male and female players take part in the prestigious U.S Chess Championships, this year hosted in the newly renovated Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC). This event is always exhilarating to watch, as we witness many generations of American chess battling it out for the coveted titles of U.S and U.S Women’s Champion.

The 2025 U.S. Women's Championship field — The participants of this year's U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Chess Championship (Photos courtesy of Diane Anderson/SLCC)

The 2025 U.S. Championship field — The participants of this year's U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Chess Championship (Photos courtesy of Diane Anderson/SLCC)

The massive prize fund of $402,000 doesn’t hurt, either! The fields just seem to get stronger each year, and now the average FIDE rating in the open is above 2680 and in the women's it is over 2340.

Oparin and Caruana play blitz — Top row: Some premonitions from opening night: Grigoriy Oparin and Fabiano Caruana play blitz before their first-round pairing, co-leaders Nazi Paikidze and Atousa Pourkashiyan sit together. Bottom row: Rose Atwell and Megan Paragua, and Abhimanyu Mishra (L) with Carissa Yip and Andy Woodward (Photos courtesy of Diane Anderson/SLCC)

Paikidze and Pourkashiyan — Top row: Some premonitions from opening night: Grigoriy Oparin and Fabiano Caruana play blitz before their first-round pairing, co-leaders Nazi Paikidze and Atousa Pourkashiyan sit together. Bottom row: Rose Atwell and Megan Paragua, and Abhimanyu Mishra (L) with Carissa Yip and Andy Woodward (Photos courtesy of Diane Anderson/SLCC)

Women’s: Krush and Pourkashiyan defeat tournament favorites, Sargsyan scores first win in a U.S Championship

The first round of the U.S Women’s Championship saw many crucial results, with three decisive results out of six games.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Krush during her win over Lee — Irina Krush won in style against one of her rivals (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Krush interviewed after her victory — Irina Krush won in style against one of her rivals (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

In the generational battle between GM Irina Krush and IM Alice Lee, the eight-time U.S. Women’s champ took down the top junior on the eve of her 16th birthday.

Alice Lee was outplayed by Irina Krush in the first round, but there are many rounds to go (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Playing in her first U.S. Women’s Championship, IM Anna Sargsyan got off to a hot start by defeating FM Rose Atwell, the 16-year-old who is back in St. Louis for the second year in a row.

Anna Sargsyan made a victorious debut in her first U.S. Women's Championship (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

A former European Women’s champion, Sargsyan recently switched federations from Armenia to USA after moving to St. Louis to attend Webster University. Her dynamic style is a great addition to these events:

In the most important game of the round, WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan took down the back-to-back reigning champion IM Carissa Yip as Black! Yip clung to a slight advantage for most of the middlegame, but, as her clock wound down at the end of the first time control, she was unable to find a way to break through. From there, she was unable to find any super-precise continuations to salvage the draw.

Left: Atousa Pourkashiyan watches Sargsyan – Atwell. Right: Pourkashiyan after her statement victory. (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Pourkashiyan after her win against Yip — Left: Atousa Pourkashiyan watches Sargsyan – Atwell. Right: Pourkashiyan after her statement victory. (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

The rest of the games were drawn, but all of them saw great fighting chess with chances for all the players to grab the full point. Of today’s games, Sargsyan – Krush features a battle of two co-leaders, while Pourkashiyan – Paikidze pits the third leader against a two-time champion, and Abrahamyan – Yip pits two of the sharpest players in the event against each other.

Open: Caruana and Aronian are first to strike with victories

Fabiano Caruana (L) and Grigory Oparin shake hands before Caruana's opening surprise (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Fresh off his victory in the Grand Chess Tour Finals, GM Fabiano Caruana started with a clean win against one of his seconds, Grigoriy Oparin.

In the only other decisive game, GM Levon Aronian got his revenge against the reigning U.S Junior Champion, GM Andy Woodward, for last month’s Grand Swiss (see Andy’s annotations of that game here)!

Levon Aronian joins Caruana atop the standings after his revenge against Andy Woodward on Monday (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Funnily enough, it was Woodward who won as Black last month, and now Aronian returned the favor by winning with the black pieces yesterday:

The other four games were drawn, but it could be said that Awonder Liang missed some chances against GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who now has an undefeated streak of 68 games! While GM Hans Niemann's draw as Black against GM Wesley So might not have looked too eventful over the board, it led to the most iconic photos of the round:

Bird Niemann 1 — Chief Arbiter Chris Bird steps in, creating a scene that Niemann later stated made him "feel like the leader of a small country." (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Bird Niemann 2 — Chief Arbiter Chris Bird steps in, creating a scene that Niemann later stated made him "feel like the leader of a small country." (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Of all the reactions to the sunshine (which will be addressed in future rounds: staff members were seen putting tarps over the ceiling), perhaps the best was GM Garry Kasparov's reminder to study your classics.

Today, Caruana takes the white pieces once again, this time against Woodward. Aronian will play as White against Liang.