2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Championship: Tsodikova Wins Playoff for Title

The 2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Championship made history. In both previous years of this event, there was a clear champion from the classical games. But this year, at the end of the five-round Swiss system tournament, 2023’s winner WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia and last year’s winner WFM Natalya Tsodikova were tied with four points each.

Anjelina Belakovskaia (L) and Natalya Tsodikova tied for first with 4/5 scores. (Photo courtesy of Anna Wyzywany)

Belakovskaia defeated Tsodikova Saturday night in their head-to-head game, but drew both of her games on Sunday while Tsodikova won both her games Sunday to catch the leader.

In the playoff, Tsodikova was victorious, making her the first two-time U.S. Senior Women’s Champion

Before their Sunday evening playoff, there was a visit by a state senator and several hard-fought classical games.

Utah State Senator Visits

Stephanie Pitcher visited the playing site in Murray, Utah. She was a five-time Utah Women’s State Champion by age 22. Now a senator representing District 14 in Salt Lake County, Pitcher “approaches legislation like a chess game — methodical, precise and several steps ahead. She passed more bills than any other Democrat in the Republican-controlled legislature this year,” according to the 19thnews.org article linked above. She also remains an active tournament player, competing most recently in the Under-1900 section of the 2024 National Open.

Utah State Sen. Stephanie Pitcher (L) with fourth-place finisher Chouchanik Airapetian. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Pitcher arrived as Round 5, which had begun at 3 p.m., was ending. As an aside, yesterday I predicted that Round 5 pairings would be delayed because of the length of fighting games in Round 4. Indeed, pairings weren’t available until 2:23 p.m. because some Round 4 games took a long time to finish. So, let’s turn to those fighting games!

Draws on Sunday for Belakovskaia

As the only perfect 3/3 score at the end of Saturday’s rounds, including a win over Tsodikova, it seemed that Belakovskaia might win her second U.S. Senior Women’s Championship. But, on Sunday, Belakovskaia gave up two draws, to WFM Chouchanik Airapetian in round 4 and to WFM Olga Sagalchik in round 5.

Belakovskaia during her final classical game against Olga Sagalchik. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Against Airapetian, Belakovskaia had a slight advantage, but Airapetian defended excellently to lock down the position:

Against Sagalchik, Belakovskaia was in some trouble early on for the first time in any of this year’s games. But a nice tactic put her back in control before she eventually opted to end the game with a perpetual check:

Tsodikova’s Winning Sunday

Tsodikova during her final classical game against Airapetian, with Belakovskaia's game in the background. (Photo by Alexey Root)

While Belakovskaia drew twice on Sunday, Tsodikova won twice on Sunday. Her wins were against WCM Mary Kuhner in round 4 and against Airapetian in round 5.

The Playoff

The start of the playoff between Belakovskaia (L) and Tsodikova, with Chief Tournament Director NTD/IA Karen Pennock overseeing. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Tsodikova and Belakovskaia were tired from playing two long games on Sunday. But they heroically played three more games on Sunday night to determine a champion.

The playoff consisted of two blitz games played at G/3 with a 2-second increment. In the result of a tie after the two blitz games, a single Armageddon game would determine the winner. Choosing between pawns hidden behind the tournament director’s back, Belakovskaia picked the black pawn for the first blitz game, which she won:

IM Rost Tsodikov is Natasha’s husband. He told me that her loss in that first playoff game was caused, in part, by Tsodikova trading queens. This trade was against the advice he had shared with her pre-playoff. For the remaining playoff games, Tsodikova followed her husband’s advice: keeping queens on, thus keeping the position complicated and time-consuming.

Then came an Armageddon game, for which Tsodikova had four minutes as Black with draw odds. She got Black by picking that color from the two pawns hidden by the tournament director. Belakovskaia had White and five minutes.

Despite switching openings, Belakovskaia again found herself down on the clock with the white pieces. She managed to neutralize Black’s early pressure, but, in a roughly equal position, flagged while looking for a way to continue pushing for the needed winning plan.

With her Armageddon victory, Tsodikova won the trophy and the title of 2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Champion. The players split the first and second place prize money, taking home $3,000 apiece.

The Rest of the Field

The third place winner was WFM Olga Sagalchik, with 3½/5, winning $1,000. Before drawing with Belakovskaia in the final round, Sagalchik lost a very complex game to Tsodikova in Round 2. She won the rest of her games, and her Round 4 victory is included here:

The youngest player in the tournament, Airapetian, took fourth place with 3/5, earning $600. It was Airapetian’s first year playing in this event. Her Round 3 win was covered in yesterday’s report.

Third-place finisher Olga Sagalchik with Chief Tournament Director NTD/IA Karen Pennock (L) and Chief Organizer Maureen Grimaud (R). (Photo courtesy of Anna Wyzywany)

Fourth-place finisher Chouchanik Airapetian with US Chess Interim Executive Director Franc Guadalupe (L), Pennock, Grimaud, commentator and streamer WGM Sabina Foisor, and US Chess Women's Committee Co-Chair Kimberly Doo. (Photo courtesy of Anna Wyzywany)

Tied-fifth finishers Natasha Christiansen and Jennifer Skidmore Smith with Doo (L) and former US Chess Senior Committee Chair Michal Mulford (R). (Photo courtesy of Anna Wyzywany)

One of the players tied for fifth and sixth places, with 2½/5, was Jennifer Skidmore Smith. One year older than Airapetian, Skidmore Smith was also making her debut in the U.S. Senior Women’s Championship. Also tied for fifth and sixth places was WCM Natasha Christiansen. By performing much better than predicted by her FIDE rating, she also won four out of the five upset prizes offered.

I finished tied for seventh and eighth places with WCM Mary Kuhner. We both scored 2/5, which, for me, is a familiar score: I also got 2 points in the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Senior Women’s Championships. My best game was my fourth-round win over WIM Shernaz Kennedy.

Rounding out the field were Varinia Cabrera, in ninth place with 1½/5, and WIM Shernaz Kennedy, the oldest player in this year’s event, who took 10th place.

Acceptance Speech

After accepting her trophy, Tsodikova gave a short speech. She thanked David and Maureen Grimaud for continuing the U.S. Senior Women’s Championship. The event got its start in 2023 with sponsor FM Jim Eade and host Elizabeth Shaughnessy (Berkeley Chess School). Thanks to the Grimauds, and to sponsor Precision Tune Auto Care, the event was held again in 2024 and 2025. As Tsodikova noted, it has become an annual event.

Tsodikova with her husband, Rost Tsodikov, after the event. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Then Tsodikova thanked Belakovskaia, mentioning how the next time that they see each other they will be teammates, representing the USA at the 2026 FIDE World Senior Teams Championships in Durres, Albania.

Quick Links

All Coverage of the 2025 U.S. Senior Women's Championship

Games broadcast on Chess.com

Live commentary with WGM Sabina Foisor on Twitch

Past coverage: Reports from the 2023 U.S. Women's Senior Championship and the 2024 U.S. Women's Senior Championship