Carissa Yip, Alice Lee Notch Remarkable 1-2 Finish Atop Stacked Cairns Cup Cross Table

Just a few days ago, in this very publication, I suggested the battle between youth and experience at the 2025 Cairns Cup was looking a bit drawish. I didn’t mean to suggest that the games themselves were uninteresting (anything but!) but only that the two camps seemed evenly matched, with young American IMs Alice Lee and Carissa Yip joined in the top half of the standings by veterans such as Indian GMs Humpy Koneru and Harika Dronavalli.

Even before the last round began on Thursday at the Saint Louis Chess Club, youth had prevailed. Yip led Lee by a half-point in the standings. Lee was in clear second. And Yip was playing as White against Lee, meaning that both the winner and (most likely) the runner-up would be the youngest and third-youngest participants (GM-Elect Bibisara Assaubayeva, who finished in a tie for fourth, is about six months younger than Yip) in the tournament.

But age is just a number. Yip and Lee also entered the tournaments as the two lowest-rated players in the event. While some might argue that rating is just a number, too, I trust you to get the distinction here. It wouldn’t be as newsworthy if the youngest player in a tournament, who also just happened to out-rate their opposition by 50+ points, came out on top.

All photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC

At the end of nine rounds of intense, combative play, IM Carissa Yip won her first Cairns Cup with a 6/9 score. Her 2613 performance rating was also good for her second GM norm, and her victory earned her a cool $65,000 and a trip north of 2450 FIDE for the first time in her career. Just as importantly, perhaps she has also earned a few weeks without anybody anybody asking the 21-year-old when she plans to go back to Stanford.

By holding a draw from a difficult queen-versus-pieces endgame, IM Alice Lee secured clear second with 5½/9, unfortunately finishing a half-point shy of her first GM norm. But her 2572 performance rating still netted her $50,000 and a new peak FIDE rating of 2412. Not a bad week for the 15-year-old!

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

The five Cairns Cups have now produced five distinct winners, with Yip joining the ranks of GM Valentina Gunina (2019), GM Humpy Koneru (2020), IM Anna Zatonskih (2023), and GM Tan Zhongyi (2024). The tournament always combines a mixture of the world’s most formidable female players with America’s top talent, with GM Irina Krush and Zatonskih both having appeared multiple times. But this year, Yip and Lee were each invited for their second Cairns cup, with each player hoping to improve on their previous performance. In 2020, Yip and Krush tied for seventh with 4/9 scores, and, in 2024, Lee and Krush tied for seventh with 4/9 scores.

Since then, Yip has had countless successes including her phenomenal individual gold medal performance at the 45th FIDE Olympiad. And since last year’s Cairns Cup, Lee earned an Olympiad medal of her own and added a second straight American Cup to her trophy case.

Yip with her trophy and norm certificate (L), and in conversation with Rex Sinquefield and GM Yasser Seirawan

Rex, Yasser, and Yip — Yip with her trophy and norm certificate (L), and in conversation with Rex Sinquefield and GM Yasser Seirawan

But, still, this was a field with six (soon-to-be seven) grandmasters, including four players still rated over 2500! It’s not quite fair to say that nobody predicted this, but it is a remarkable result even before considering that Yip started out with 1½/4.

Yip earned her “plus-three” score the hard way, winning not three but five games, with two of those wins negated by losses in rounds 1 and 4 to GMs Harika Dronavalli and Mariya Muzychuk, respectively. Besides her struggle with Lee in the final round, her only draw was in round 2 to IM Alina Kashlinskaya.

Exactly eight months before winning the Cairns Cup, Yip won her eighth consecutive game in the 2024 U.S. Women’s Championship. This 8/8 start was phenomenal, and it had everybody abuzz about whether she could pull off an 11/11 tournament and the accompanying $64,000 bonus prize. It was not meant to be, and while it was still an incredible result for Yip, the inability to finish strong was clearly something that bothered her.

Yip and Liang — Yip with her second, GM Awonder Liang (L), and her father, Percy

Yip Squared — Yip with her second, GM Awonder Liang (L), and her father, Percy

Winning this event by coming from behind and finishing with 4½/5, then, must be especially sweet for Yip. Another interesting piece of symmetry: Yip also began the tournament where she earned her first GM norm with a loss!

Constructing a come-from-behind narrative in a Round Robin sometimes feels cheap, admittedly, as a player’s score halfway through the event can be misleading. Maybe they had to play all the highest-rated players first, but they are now favorites against their remaining foes.

No.

Beginning in round 5, when Yip defeated GM Nana Dzagnidze (despite a certain somebody’s disapproval of some of Yip’s early choices), Yip went on a four-game win streak where she defeated the four highest-rated players in the event in a row. Her wins over Dzagnidze and Humpy came with the white pieces, but as Black she defeated this year’s FIDE Women’s World Championship runner-up GM Tan Zhongyi and Assaubayeva, who joined the world women’s top 10 by crossing the 2500 threshold and becoming eligible for the GM title. Below are Yip’s two victories as Black, both of which highlight excellent opening preparation and her fighting spirit:

Yip’s win over Humpy was crucial for the leaderboard, as Yip entered the round a full point behind Humpy. With her win — and Lee’s win that same round over Kashlinskaya — the Americans were able to join Humpy in a three-way tie for first with 4½/7.

The key positions from these round seven games were featured earlier this week in our Wednesday Workout, and the critical moment of Yip – Humpy is embedded below, as is a full annotation of Lee – Kashlinskaya.

For both Lee and Yip, the magic number was six. That’s the number of points either of them would need to earn a GM norm. This meant that, if each player won their penultimate game, a head-to-head draw would clinch norms for both players. But while Yip defeated Assaubayeva, Lee was unable to get much as White against Harika, settling for a draw.

No pressure! Lee poses and smiles before a must-win game.

What’s unfortunate is, had Lee not lost to an inspired Assaubayeva in an impressive miniature on Monday, her result of 1/2 in her final two rounds still would have netted a norm.

Alas, Lee had the unfortunate task of having to play for a win with the black pieces against a familiar opponent who needed only a draw. What ensued was a fantastic five-hour struggle of a chess game that showed the strength and perseverance of each player. Lee came prepared with an off-beat line against Yip’s Four Knights Scotch that managed to avoid the early liquidation that the main variations tend to produce.

Lee focused — The battle for first place took over five hours and almost 100 moves, and there were no smiles until the draw was settled.

Handshake — The battle for first place took over five hours and almost 100 moves, and there were no smiles until the draw was settled.

But right when it looked like Yip was going to be able to start trading pieces off, Lee made an incredibly bold and practical decision to part with her queen rather than play a lifeless endgame. While it didn’t pay off, it was an inspired decision that also allowed her to show off her impressive defensive skills over the next 50 or so moves:

The Cairns Cup is an annual opportunity for the strongest female players in the world to square off on one of the most professional, high-profile stages. As more organizers embark on creating similarly strong events, my only hope is that they will continue to invite more American IMs to see if they can keep up their impressive track record.