Nakamura Breaks Caruana's Streak, Wins American Cup Blitz

The annual American Cup Blitz has become an annual tradition following the American Cup's conception in 2022. The American Cup features 16 players in two eight-player double elimination brackets, but the American Cup Blitz provides an opportunity for a number of other invited players to compete with the American elite for an additional $21,700 in prizes.

Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC

Held at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri, the nine-round blitz tournament saw members of Saint Louis University (SLU), Webster University, and University of Missouri (Mizzou)'s chess teams join American Cup participants and members of the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC)'s broadcast team in a star-studded event. The total list of invited players was around 100, with 32 of the invitees clearing their Monday schedules to join the 16 American Cup participants on Monday. The cross table is available here.

Yip and So smile as Mishra discusses his game with Lee

A quarter of this year's American Cup participants engage in some friendly banter during the blitz (Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

Our guest annotator for this event, GM Luka Budisavljevic, was able to compete in the American Cup Blitz, posting a nice 5/9 score that saw him tie for 14th place with players such as Wesley So. Budisavljevic's tournament also included an upset of GM Leinier Dominguez. Despite being a bit preoccupied during the blitz, Budisavljevic was still able to review games from the top boards and select his five favorite moments from the event, which are included with his annotations below.

Another tradition has been for GM Fabiano Caruana to win the American Cup Blitz, with the 2025 American Cup runner-up finishing first in each of the Blitz's first three iterations.

Irina Krush faces off against Fabiano Caruana (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

But, this year, it was reigning American Cup champion GM Hikaru Nakamura who broke Caruana's streak, finishing in clear first with a 7½/9 score and adding an additional $5,000 to his coffers. The top 30 overall standings (and prize breakdowns) can be found on Chess.com's report from the event.

Nakamura interviewed after his tournament victory

Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC

A half-point behind Nakamura, GM Levon Aronian finished in clear second with a 7/9 score, earning $4,000. The critical moment came in the penultimate round, when Aronian defeated Caruana thanks to a clever tactic.

Caruana and GM Sam Sevian tied for third with 6½/9, each taking home $1,500. Caruana had an uphill climb toward the top of the standings after being upset in the third round by GM Aryan Chopra:

Six players tied for fifth with 6/9 including GM Mikhail Antipov, who earned $2,500 as the top finisher rated under 2600 (FIDE blitz ratings were used for prizes).

Antipov (L) essayed a number of upsets, including his second-round win over Aronian pictured above (Photo courtesy of Crystal Fuller/SLCC)

For context on Antipov's achievement, the 2579-rated player finished ahead of half of the American Cup Open's participants. Moreover, he had a chance to tie for first playing on the top board against Nakamura in the final round, thanks to Nakamura's surprising eighth-round blunder from an equal position against Sevian. Indeed, Antipov was close to winning before he gave Nakamura just enough counterplay to hang on:

Antipov's fine form was on display from early on, as seen as his third-round victory over Sevian:

With 5½/9, GM Viktor Gazik earned $1,500 for the second-highest score of players rated under 2600. GM Emin Ohanyan earned $2,200 for the top Under-2500 prize with the same score. Six players tied for the Under-2400 prize, including two women from the American Cup: FM Thalia Cervantes and IM Alice Lee.

A picture of a phone filming Kostya Kavutskiy's blitz game against Thalia Cervantes

Several popular streamers, including IM Kostya Kavutskiy (L), had their games broadcast live with video. Here, Kavutskiy places Thalia Cervantes, who finished tied for first among players rated under 2400 (Photo courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

FM Gabriela Antova was also in this group, making that trio the highest-scoring women in the event. Also tying for the Under-2400 prize was commentator IM Eric Rosen as well as IM Tianqi Wang and FM Marcus Ming Miyasaka.

Gabriela Antova (L) and Eric Rosen also joined the top group of players rated under 2400 (Photos courtesy of Lennart Ootes/SLCC)

Overall, the quality of chess at this event was quite high. As an example of this, Budisavljevic highlighted So's second-round victory over GM Vasif Durabayli, which followed theory deep into the game before So took over with his trademark technique:

Games from the top boards of the American Cup Blitz are available for replay on Chess.com, and SLCC's video coverage with commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, Christian Chirila, and WGM Katerina Nemcova is available for replay here.

Editor's note: This article has been updated to include the link to the full MSA cross table, and to reflect that, while the list of invited participants was 100, thee total list of participants was lower.