Round 10: Great Games, Stable Standings

Barring a miracle, the 2026 U.S. Championships will end today without a need for tiebreaks in either event. GM Wesley So and WIM Rachael Li each protected their full point leads and now enter the final round needing only a draw to secure the title outright.

Still, with over $400,000 in prizes, there is still plenty to play for. We certainly saw this on Tuesday, as Round 10 delivered several of the tournament’s most fascinating, intense, and complicated games, all played by players out of the running for first place.

GM Luka Budisavljevic is here to guide us through today’s dark forests, and will be back tomorrow with even more highlights.

U.S. Championship: Shankland – Sevian Steals Show

With all six players in the top half of the standings ending their games peacefully, GM Sam Shankland’s win against GM Samuel Sevian was easily the highlight of the round.

Sam Shankland came out on the winning side of an exciting Poisoned Pawn Najdorf. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Shankland avoided the main theoretical line against Sevian’s Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf Sicilian, and what resulted was one of the sharpest games of the round. Shankland was in trouble early on, but then was close to winning before Sevian turned things around. Until…

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

GM Levon Aronian’s win over GM Ray Robson was the round’s only other decisive game. Today, So just needs a draw as Black against Sevian to clinch his fourth U.S. Championship title.

Wesley So took care of business on Tuesday and moved one day closer to his fourth title. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

But a loss from So opens the door for both GM Fabiano Caruana and his second, GM Grigoriy Oparin, to force a tiebreak. Caruana would have to beat GM Awonder Liang as White for this to happen, while Oparin would have to win as Black against Robson.

U.S. Women’s Championship: Li, Lee Lead Leaderboard

With five decisive games, Tuesday’s was lots of fun in the U.S. Women’s Championship. IM Alice Lee entered the round a full point behind Li, but her win over WGM Thalia Cervantes looked like it might help her close the gap.

Alice Lee was determined to keep things interesting on Tuesday, winning her game to retain a mathematical possibility of tying for first. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

GM Irina Krush also entered the day a point behind Li, but her uneventful draw as Black against FM Megan Paragua did not help her play catchup.

Instead, Li took an early 13-minute lead on the clock, which proved crucial in helping to grind out a win against IM Rose Atwell to protect her lead.

Of the remaining games, IM Tatev Abrahamyan’s spectacular miniature against IM Nazi Paikidze was a real gem:

The most instructive game came courtesy of IM Anna Sargsyan, showing what can happen if one side neglects development. Against WGM Jennifer Yu, Sargsyan went into the tank on move one (!), and the rest of the room was somewhere between move seven and move 12 before this one reached move four.

But once Sargsyan banged out the Henning-Schara Gambit, Yu went into an even deeper tank, and it wasn’t long before Sargsyan was ahead on the clock, according to Chess Life and Chess Life Kids Assistant Editor, who was on site for the round.