Round 5: Teen Takeover at U.S. Championships

After a day off, players were ready to fight, and the 2026 U.S. Championships delivered eight decisive results on Wednesday.

IM Alice Lee extended her lead in the U.S. Women’s Championship to a full point by improving to 4½/5. Lee turned 17 on her day off, but she picked up right where 16-year-old Alice left off, winning her fourth consecutive game.

Woodward confidently moves against Caruana as Lee blurs by. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

But in the U.S. Championship, reigning U.S. Junior Champion GM Andy Woodward scored the best win of his career (so far), upsetting the four-time reigning U.S. Champion GM Fabiano Caruana to join GM Wesley So atop the leaderboard.

Notably, teenagers scored a perfect 5/5 between the two sections, so it’s only fitting that another “zoomer,” WGM Zoey Tang provides us with today’s annotations.

Women’s: The Future is Now

Lee won as Black against her Olympiad teammate IM Tatev Abrahamyan after forcing her experienced opponent to defend an uncomfortable endgame.

Happy belated birthday, Alice! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

As Tang observes, Abrahamyan missed a chance to punish a risky pawn-grab early on, but the correct variation was both deep and narrow, making it incredibly hard to find over the board.

WGM Thalia Cervantes held GM Irina Krush to a draw to improve to 3½/5, which is good for a share of second place. But joining her are two players even younger than Lee!

WIM Rachael Li (age 16) took down two-time U.S. Women’s champion WGM Jennifer Yu with a complete game. One inaccuracy handed Li the initiative, and she never relented.

FM Megan Paragua (who is only 13), also defeated a two-time champion yesterday, patiently grinding down IM Nazi Paikidze after claiming a space advantage early on.

The 13-year-old Paragua continues to impress in this year's championship. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In another intra-Olympiad clash, IM Rose Atwell upset IM Carissa Yip with one of the finest tactical sequences of her career (so far).

Lee leads the trio of Li, Paragua, and Cervantes by a full point, and GM Irina Krush and IM Anna Zatonskih are the only remaining players with positive scores.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

With eight national championships between Yip, Yu, and Paikidze, the bottom of the standings is certainly unexpected. But the Finish Strong Prize race begins today, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of these three players pick it up.

Today, Lee – Li is the critical game for the standings, while Cervantes is Black against Paikidze and Paragua is White against Abrahamyan.

Open: Woodward Wows

In last year’s U.S. Championship, Caruana tried to catch Woodward off-guard with an early deviation only for Woodward to come close to scoring an upset as Black. With another year of experience (and the white pieces), Woodward was this time able to successfully punish Caruana’s early experiment.

Andy Woodward scored his first career victory over Fabiano Caruana on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Displaying impressive poise and practical decision-making, Caruana’s chances to get back into the game were few and fleeting:

With his win, Woodward joined So atop the leaderboard after So quickly drew GM Grigoriy Oparin as Black. Caruana trails by a half-point, as does GM Jeffery Xiong.

Anything but boring, Xiong has improved to 3/5 with yet another decisive game. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In his fifth straight decisive game, Xiong capitalized on an early initiative to win a piece against GM Levon Aronian and, after defusing all of Aronian’s tricks, hang on to win.

Abhimanyu Mishra (L) reminded us once again of his remarkable stamina. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

GM Abhimanyu Mishra moved up to an even score after grinding out a 107-move win over GM Samuel Sevian:

GM Ray Robson moved up to 2/5 by taking down GM Hans Niemann in a rook endgame that reminds us that, even if all rook endgames are draws, some endgames are more drawish than others:

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

With six players within a point of the co-leaders, it’s still anybody’s tournament. Today, Woodward is Black against Niemann while So is White against Mishra. Caruana will try to bounce back as Black against GM Sam Shankland, while anything could happen in Xiong – Oparin.