Rachael Li Wins 2026 U.S. Women's Championship, Caruana Forces Playoff with So

The 2026 U.S. Championships were supposed to end on Wednesday without a need for tiebreaks. GM Wesley So led the field by a full point, and a draw as Black against GM Samuel Sevian would clinch his fourth title. Likewise, WIM Rachael Li only needed a draw against IM Anna Zatonskih to win her first title. Besides, even if So or Li did lose, would anybody else even be able to win on demand to close the full-point gap?

What could have been a formality of a final round in St. Louis instead turned into high drama, and today we will have an encore at noon CDT when So faces off against GM Fabiano Caruana in a playoff!

Today’s games are once again annotated by GM Luka Budisavljevic, and we have on site reporting from Chess Life and Chess Life Kids Assistant Editor Rick Massimo.

U.S. Women’s Championship: Li Finishes Strong, Wins First Title

16-year-old WIM Rachael Li is our 2026 U.S. Women’s Championship winner. With a draw as Black, Li secured clear first and a $45,000 payout that included $35,000 for first place, a $5,000 Winner’s Bonus and the $5,000 Finish Strong Prize for 5/6 conclusion to her fantastic tournament.

Rachael Li at the start and finish of her tournament-clinching draw. (Photos courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Li finished with an 8½/11 score and seven wins against only one loss. The strong finish must be especially satisfying, as she raced out to an early 4/4 lead this past July at the 2026 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, only to fade with a 1½/5 finish down the stretch.

Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller.

After Tuesday’s win, Li didn’t think she would be particularly nervous entering the last round, telling Massimo she would likely just catch up on homework. While she confirmed Wednesday that she did indeed do her homework, she also didn’t sleep very well. When Zatonskih repeated the position twice — but not thrice — in the opening, Li had to make a mental shift. “I was thinking ‘what were her intentions?’” When she realized Zatonskih was not going to repeat, she said, “I had to get myself into the mental state that I’m playing for a win now. It came as a small shock, but it wasn’t too bad… I was really relieved that I didn’t end up losing the game somehow. I really didn’t want playoffs. Really relieved, happy that it’s finally over and I can return to my family.”

A Li loss would have allowed IM Alice Lee to force a playoff with a win, and Lee certainly did her part. One mistake on move 28 by IM Anna Sargsyan was enough for Lee to navigate the game to victory.

While Alice Lee was unable to win her first title, she did gain rating, inching ever closer to the 2500 threshold she will need for her grandmaster title. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Even after Li’s draw clinched the tournament, Lee’s win allowed her to finish in clear second with an 8/11 score and earning $30,000.

Irina Krush (L) pictured here before her move 7. g4 set the tone for the game. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

GM Irina Krush finished in clear third, also winning her game to end on a 7½/11 score. Her opponent, IM Tatev Abrahamyan, told Massimo yesterday that she fully expected Krush to play for a win. By the time Krush played 7. g4, Abrahamyan’s prediction was proven correct.

A last-round win is always a nice way to close out a tournament, but winning with such style has to be a best-case scenario. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

While IM Rose Atwell had an up-and-down tournament, she produced several incredible victories and added another to her oeuvre with the following queen sacrifice:

U.S. Championship: The Unthinkable Happens

If anybody could “draw on demand,” it’s GM Wesley So. The three-time national champion is an incredibly solid player, not to mention a resourceful and resilient one. Besides, either Caruana or GM Grigoriy Oparin would have to win on demand for this to matter, anyways.

Caruana and Liang shake hands at the start of a game that ended up being far more consequential than Caruana imagined. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

While Oparin drew uneventfully as Black, Caruana zipped out to an advantage against GM Awonder Liang. Although Caruana rushed things, the position remained complex and Liang again let Caruana take control.

Despite ambitious opening play, Caruana told Massimo that he did not go into his game thinking of it as a “must win” because he assessed So’s chances of losing as zero.

“I really didn’t think a win would help me, so I wasn’t considering it a must-win game in that sense, because it’s totally out of my hands,” Caruana said. “If I were a half-point behind I would say it was a must-win game. So I just wanted to play normally; I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself.”

But by the time Caruana won, So’s position had went from unpleasant to possibly losing. That said, So had more chances in the complex rook-and-pawn endgame than he seemed to realize.

Sevian's choice to play for a win paid off as he displayed impressive technique deep into the rook-and-pawn endgame. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Sevian confirmed what Budisavljevic wrote about So’s 48. … Rxg3??, agreeing with Massimo’s assessment of it as a move you play when you think you’re already losing, saying, “Yeah. I think he definitely thought it was over.”

“I just took it like any other day. I’m here to fight,” Sevian said about his decision to play for a win. “I haven’t played too many tournaments this year; everything is an opportunity. I’m playing one of the best players in the world — why make a draw in 10 moves?”

"Oh no, my pawn!" (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

GM Jeffery Xiong moved into a tie for third with Oparin thanks to a fine win over GM Hans Niemann, capped off with a nice bit of trickery.

So and Caruana have each won $49,000 already, with the $7,000 Winner’s Bonus on the line today. Xiong and Oparin netted $30,000 each.

Today’s playoff format will be a mini-match consisting of two rapid games played at the time control of game in 15 minutes with a 10-second increment from move one. If the match is tied after the first two games, another two-game rapid mini-match will take place, and blitz tiebreaks (game in five minutes with a two-second increment) will come next, rather than Armageddon.