2026 U.S. Championships Preview

Will we finally see a new champion in either the U.S. Championship or the U.S. Women’s Championship this year? Not if either of our Olympiad top boards have their way! But among the challengers will be the entire remainder of the Open and Women’s Olympiad teams and a host of former U.S. champions.

The Saint Louis Chess Center (SLCC) hosts both events, and Round 1 begins Friday, Oct. 9. The 11-round round robin concludes on Wednesday, Oct. 21, with playoffs the following day if needed. Rounds begin daily at 12 p.m. CDT excluding the rest days of Tuesday, Oct. 13 and Sunday, Oct. 18.

2025 U.S. Championships awards ceremony. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

GM Fabiano Caruana has won every U.S. Championship since 2022 (plus a fifth in 2016) and looks to make it five in a row in St. Louis. IM Carissa Yip — fresh off her Board 1 individual silver medal at the 46^th FIDE Olympiad — is looking for her fourth title in a row (and fifth overall, including 2021).

OPEN

Caruana’s closest competitors, by rating, are his four teammates from Samarkand: GMs Wesley So, Hans Niemann, Levon Aronian, and Awonder Liang. So is a three-time U.S. Champion and Aronian is coming off his second consecutive individual Olympiad medal. Niemann and Liang both made their Olympiad debuts this year, but neither 23-year-old is a stranger to this event: Niemann makes his fourth appearance and Liang his eighth.

Captain John Donaldson with Aronian, Niemann, So, and Liang in Samarkand. (Photo by US Chess)

GMs Sam Sevian and Ray Robson enter as the two other players with invitational ratings over 2700. Sevian has been competing in this event since 2013, including a tie for first in 2021, while Robson will be competing in his 19^th consecutive events (finishing with a minus-score only thrice).

U.S. Championship regulars Ray Robson (L) and Sam Sevian during their 2025 encounter. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

GMs Jeffery Xiong and Sam Shankland both look to capitalize on strong 2025 World Cup performances and keep the momentum going in St. Louis, although Xiong has not played a rated classical game in 2026. Shankland is the 2018 U.S. champion and has appeared on four American squads in the Olympiad.

The talented juniors — GMs Abhimanyu Mishra and Andy Woodward — are close behind in rating. The 17-year-old Mishra won a classical game against GM Gukesh Dommaraju last year, making him the youngest-ever player to beat a current world champion. while Woodward made headlines (and Chess Life covers) with his win at the Tata Steel Challengers this past January.

Andy Woodward (L) and Abhimanyu Mishra last squared off three months ago in the U.S. Junior Championship. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Austin Fuller)

Finally, GM Grigoriy Oparin rounds out the field as this year’s U.S. Open qualifier. Oparin is no stranger to elite competition, having served as Caruana’s second and this year’s Olympiad coach for the Open team.

WOMEN’S

As in the Open, Yip’s four closest competitors (ratings-wise) are also her Olympiad teammates. Chief among them is IM Alice Lee, who just won an individual gold for her Board 2 performance in Samarkand, and, at just age 16, is already the top-ranked female junior (under-20) in the world.

The USA Women's team finished fourth overall at this year's Olympiad, winning the Category A prize. (Photo courtesy FIDE/Michal Walusza)

But GM Irina Krush is still the only woman to earn the grandmaster title while representing the U.S., and, with eight U.S. Women’s championships under her belt, she is always a serious contender. The other Olympiad team members — IMs Rose Atwell and Tatev Abrahamyan — are also in strong form. Atwell became the first female player to earn a share of the US Chess High School (K-12) National Championship title this past March, while Abrahamyan earned her IM title (and first GM norm) last year.

Top finishers Krush, Sargsyan, and Yip at the 2025 closing ceremony. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

IM Anna Sargsyan returns for her second U.S. Women’s Championship after finishing just a half-point behind Yip in last year’s debut. Sargsyan joins a storied list of Armenian-American competitors and won an individual bronze medal at the 45^th Olympiad for Armenia two years ago.

WIM Rachael Li is making her U.S. Women’s Championship debut at the perfect time in her career. This year alone, Li’s accomplishments include: a tie for second place in the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship this past July, a match win over Krush in the American Cup, and third place in the 2026 World Girls Under-16 Championship.

In a testament to this event’s depth, the players seeded eighth through 10^th (by rating) are all former champions: WGM Jennifer Yu, IM Anna Zatonskih, and IM Nazi Paikidze. Yu has quietly gained 60 FIDE rating points this year, and Zatonskih has also remained active, whereas Paikidze will be playing her first classical games since last November.

A tough tie-breaker for Thalia Cervantes saw Mariya Muzychuk come back from a deficit in the first tie-breaker in a disappointing exit for the American (Photo courtesy of Anna Shtourman/FIDE)

WGM Thalia Cervantes will be playing her seventh consecutive U.S. Women’s Championship, with her best finish (third) coming in 2022. But last year’s Women’s World Cup saw her push GM Mariya Muzychuk to tiebreaks, showing her strength.

Finally, 13-year-old FM Megan Paragua enters as the field’s youngest competitor. Paragua joined Li in a tie for second at the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship in July and looks to improve on last October’s debut.

Prizes and More

The two tournaments boast a combined prize fund of over $400,000 (including winner’s bonuses), with $152,000 allocated for the Women’s and $250,000 for the Open. This does not include the additional Fischer Bonus Prize and Finish Strong Prize.

As explained in the event regulations, the Fischer prize rewards the player with the top win streak beginning in Round 1. A five-game win streak is good for $1,000, with the amount doubling from there up to $64,000 for an 11/11 score. The Finish Strong Prize rewards the player with the best score over the event’s final six rounds. Prizes are split between players with equal scores.

In event of a tie for first, a playoff will be held on Thurs, Oct. 22 between all players involved in the tie. The winner of the playoff is awarded the winner’s bonus ($7,000 in the Open, $5,000 in the Women’s) and the title of U.S. Champion.

More information about the players is available here, and all rounds will be broadcast on SLCC’s Twitch and YouTube channels. Pairings will be determined after this evening’s opening ceremony.

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