Leaderboard Logjam after U.S. Championships Round 6

An eventful Thursday saw two more players join the share of first place in both the 2026 U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women’s Championship. Across both sections, seven of the field’s 24 players are currently tied for first, with three more only a half-point back.

2017 U.S. Women’s Champion WGM Sabina Foisor joins us today for annotations on the key games, particularly in the Women’s event.

Women’s

IM Alice Lee entered Round 6 with a full-point lead over her closest competitors. But one of them — WIM Rachael Li — took down Lee as Black to join her in a share of first.

With a win over Alice Lee, Rachael Li is back in a tie for first place. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

With a win over IM Nazi Paikidze — also as Black — WGM Thalia Cervantes was also to move up into a share of first place.

With another win, GM Irina Krush moved into fourth place with a “plus-two” score:

Krush is joined by 13-year-old FM Megan Paragua, who survived a scare against IM Tatev Abrahamyan:

It took six rounds until IM Carissa Yip scored her first win, and it was a resounding one:

Finish Strong Prize? When Carissa Yip gets on a roll, she is hard to stop! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Finally, IM Rose Atwell had chances of moving up to an even score against WGM Jennifer Yu, but, in an instructive endgame, Yu managed to salvage the half-point:

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

There’s a clear separation in the standings between the top five players (all on 4/6 or higher) and the remaining seven (all on 3/6 or below). Today, Li – Paragua could either clarify or further muck up the leaderboard, while Cervantes – Sargsyan and Atwell – Lee will also be relevant. Keep an eye, too, on Krush – Yip, which is always an entertaining rivalry.

Open

Only two games ended decisively in the Open, but both had a major impact on the leaderboard. Entering the day, GMs Wesley So and Andy Woodward led the group of GMs Fabiano Caruana, Awonder Liang, and Jeffery Xiong by a half-point.

But draws by So and Woodward (and, for the first time in this tournament, Xiong!) allowed Liang and Caruana to join the logjam.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

Caruana wasted no time in rebounding from Wednesday’s loss to Woodward. What looked like a solid game as Black in a Queen’s Gambit Declined started to heat up after GM Sam Shankland was unable to overcome his structural weaknesses.

That was fast! Fabiano Caruana is back in a share of the lead. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Liang also joined the group of leaders with a win over GM Levon Aronian. Liang came prepared against Aronian’s Open Ruy Lopez, amassing a 30-minute clock advantage by move 20.

Aronian was unable to find an active plan, and, eventually Liang forced a queen trade into a superior endgame that was straight-up winning by the time the players reached the time control.

Today, none of the co-leaders are paired against each other. Woodward and Caruana are each White (against GM Sam Sevian and GM Hans Niemann, respectively), while Liang and So are Black (against GM Grigoriy Oparin and GM Ray Robson, respectively). Depending on how those games go, Xiong could also join the leaders with a win as Black over GM Abhimanyu Mishra.