Lee and Nakamura Each Add Second American Cup to the Collection

After all the time scrambles and playoffs were over, two frontrunners emerged victorious in the 2025 American Cup. IM Alice Lee repeated last year’s victory on Sunday, March 23, while GM Hikaru Nakamura (who sat out last year’s edition) doubled down on his 2023 victory. 

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Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC

Once again, enjoy GM Luka Budisavljevic's annotations. Today, the American Cup Blitz marks the formal end of the event, and Budisavljevic will be back later this week with highlights from the blitz (where, at the top of writing, Budisavljevic has already delivered an upset over GM Leinier Dominguez).

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Nakamura sits down with Eric Rosen in the World Chess Hall of Fame after his Grand Final victory (Photo courtesy of Lennart ootes/SLCC)

Both Lee and Nakamura reached the Grand Final through the Champions Bracket, meaning they could lose the Grand Final and still have a shot at the championship through the Grand Final Reset.

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Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC

After losing his Champions Final match to Nakamura, Caruana earned his right to a rematch with his Elimination Final victory over GM Levon Aronian on Friday. In the first rapid game, Caruana won with the white pieces, but Aronian bounced right back to force a blitz playoff.

Aronian blunders under pressure and Caruana's a draw away from winning the match in the next game!https://t.co/RII5XZgQFv#AmericanCup pic.twitter.com/7g3lFOGsll

— chess24 (@chess24com) March 21, 2025

A catastrophic blunder from Aronian in the first blitz game was all Caruana needed to regain the advantage. This time, however, Caruana had the white pieces in the game where he needed only a draw, and managed to put an exclamation point on the match anyways, winning 3–1.

Perhaps feeling the pressure of the match situation, Caruana lost a complex (but equal) rook endgame to Nakamura in the first classical game.

From there, a relatively uneventful draw on Sunday, Nakamura’s 1½–½ victory shut the door on any Caruana comeback. The tournament victory netted Nakamura a $90,000 prize to go along with the $37,625 from the Champions Showdown earlier this month. Caruana’s $55,000 second-place prize paired nicely with $51,625 haul from the Showdown, meaning that both finalists managed to earn six figures in St. Louis over the past three weeks.

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Graphic courtesy of SLCC

The Women’s tournament also saw a decisive result in a classical game where many were predicting peace. But, this time, it was the underdog bouncing back, with WGM Tatev Abrahamyan defeating Lee with the black pieces in our Game of the Day:

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Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC

Abrahamyan reached the Grand Final after eliminating GM Irina Krush 2–0 in the Elimination Final.

Tatev Abrahamyan wins game one with Black and Irina Krush must win on demand with the black pieces! Otherwise, she's eliminated!https://t.co/mkyqXbk5jv#AmericanCup pic.twitter.com/F8lNACONkk

— chess24 (@chess24com) March 21, 2025

With momentum on her side, Abrahamyan only needed a draw with the white pieces to force a Grand Finals Reset. But Alice’s tenacity, mixed with Tatev’s time trouble, created some opportunistic traps for Lee:

With Lee tying the Grand Final 1–1, Abrahamyan rebounded nicely in the first blitz game, capitalizing on Lee’s early error to take an advantage. But, once again, Lee’s resourcefulness proved decisive:

Lee went on to win the final blitz game, icing the match 3–1 and repeating her 2024 feat. Lee’s victory earned her $49,000, while Abrahamyan earned $30,000 for finishing second.

Abrahamyan has participated in all four American Cups, and this was her best-ever finish, improving on her third place showing in 2022.

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Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Much like this year, Abrahamyan delivered several nice upsets (including over IM Anna Zatonskih in the first round and now-IM Begim Tokhirjonova in the Elimination semi-final), and, again like this year, both of Abrahamyan’s match losses were at the hands of Lee.

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Despite a few bad beats in the Grand Final, this tournament was a huge success for Abrahamyan (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)