De Firmian wins U.S. Senior Open; Park and Das U.S. Junior Open Co-Champs

The Caveman Chess Festival featured three US Chess national championships: The U.S. Senior Open, the U.S. Junior Open, and the U.S. Blind Open Championship. The Junior and Senior tournaments are also qualifiers for the 2027 U.S. Junior and Senior Championships, respectively, with one spot in each prestigious event up for grabs.

Winners and Qualifiers

The winner of the U.S. Senior Open was GM Nick De Firmian, who qualified for the 2027 U.S. Senior Championship. He took clear first with a 5/6 score. The U.S. Junior Open had two players tie for first with 5/6 scores: Pennsylvania’s IM Evan Park and New York’s FM Aditeya Das. Park qualifies for the 2027 U.S. Junior Championship.

Running multiple tournaments in tandem is never an easy feat. Thanks and kudos to the Caveman crew for their hard work!

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The 2026 Caveman tournament staff. (Photo by Alexey Root)

U.S. Junior Open

The U.S. Junior Open advertised four sections: Under-21, Under-15, Under-11, and Under-8. The former two were combined, as were the latter two. My writing focuses on the results of the Under-21, as this was the section that provided the qualifier for the 2027 U.S. Junior Open. Results are available here.

Texas’s Advik Manchanda ran away with the Under-11 and Under-8 section, posting a perfect 6/6 score, a full two points ahead of the four players tied for second.

After three rounds, IM Evan Park had the only perfect score in the U.S. Junior Open. In round 4, he lost as Black to FM Aditeya Das.

In the last round, Park caught up to Das with a win while Das drew. Both players were actually in danger of losing for much of their respective games:

Since Das had already conceded a draw in Round 3, both ended the event with 5/6 scores. Park edged Das on tiebreak and will be the representative at the 2027 U.S. Junior Open.

U.S. Blind Open Championship

The U.S. Blind Open Championship ended in a three-way tie for first. At the end of four rounds, three players had 3/4 scores. In tiebreak order, these players were: Grant Yosenick (IL), Jessica Lauser (MO), and Alexander Barrasso (WA). Results are on this page (under the ‘Blind’ tab).

The championship had seven participants this year. The eighth player pictured is Jack Heller, who is not visually impaired. He volunteered to play an extra rated game in Round 1 so that each blind player had an opponent.

Heller also competed in the concurrent U.S. Senior Open, in the Reserve section. These rated games capped off a full week of chess for Heller, which started with his participation as a camper at the 2026 Caveman Chess Premier Camp.

Caveman Chess Premier Camp

Before the national championships began at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare, GM Boris Avrukh and I taught chess campers at the Caveman Chess Center, located about three-and-a-half miles northeast of the hotel.

The 2026 Caveman Chess Premier Camp ran from Sunday evening, June 14 to Friday morning, June 19. Frequently analyzed at the camp, because campers had an affinity for both sides of it, was this line of the Advanced French.

As a side note, the more fashionable 8. Re1 was briefly mentioned. But I couldn’t remember what Black should reply during my second-round game with Gianluca Montalti. I was worried, remembering that he defeated GM Dmitry Gurevich at last year’s U.S. Senior Open.

After some luck, I was a pawn ahead and resolved not to offer a draw. Right after I wondered if my game would end before the hotel swimming pool closed at 10 p.m. I blundered and lost. I enjoyed my swim from 9 to 9:40 p.m., but winning would have been better.

Ecstatic Chess

The U.S. Senior Open had an Open section and separate Reserve (under-1800) section. This article focuses on the Open section. Oklahoma’s Edward Dihrberg won the Reserve with a 5½/6 score, a point ahead of the field. Results can be found here.

My husband, IM Doug Root, and I both competed in the Open. In Round 2, my husband played Dan Joelson. The next morning, at breakfast, Joelson said he was ecstatic about the game.

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Joelson (L) and Root at breakfast the morning after their game. (Photo by Alexey Root)

He said, “I was really happy with my effort and this game. I had fun. That’s why we come here: To meet other players and challenge ourselves.”

Joelson is also ecstatic about his second career. After retiring three years ago from Schlumberger Technology in Cheyenne, WY, Joelson is now a full-time chess teacher at Poder Academy.

Colors Reversed and a Reversal of Fortune

In round 3, Doug Root defeated FM Doug Eckert. The opening moves were the same as in Root’s previous round, but this time he was playing the Black side of the King’s Indian Defense.

Before the last round began, it seemed possible that Root and De Firmian would tie for first. Both had 4½/5 scores, having won their first four rounds before drawing each other in Round 5. But in the sixth and final round, Root lost as White to FM Peter Berelos. After Root’s game ended, GM Nick De Firmian drew as Black versus GM Nikola Mitkov and became the U.S. Senior Open winner.

Expert in Crypto, AI, and Chess

According to his website, James Altucher is best known for being an investor, venture capitalist, and writer. He is also an expert in crypto, AI, and chess. (He is a national master, but his rating at the start of the 2026 U.S. Senior Open was, coincidentally, 2026.)

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James Altucher (R) during his game against Hemi Fein. (Photo by Alexey Root)

Altucher has approximately 630,000 to 650,000 total followers across his major social platforms, with his audience primarily concentrated on X (Twitter) and Quora. He finished the U.S. Senior Open with a 4½/6 score, good for a share of second place. He was the lowest-rated player among the four-way tie. Here are two of his games.