So and Lee are 2026 American Cup Champions!

The fifth edition of the American Cup featured ten days of spectacular, fighting chess from 16 of America’s top chessplayers, hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club.

With a $400,000 prize fund on the line, players had to outclass each other across an innovative mixture of classical, rapid, and blitz games in this double elimination tournament.

Once the dust settled, GM Wesley So won his first American Cup on Wednesday while IM Alice Lee had to play an extra day of chess before securing her third-straight American Cup.

The 2026 American Cup champions: Wesley So (L) and, for the third consecutive year, Alice Lee. (Photos courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

The 2026 American Cup champions: Wesley So (L) and, for the third consecutive year, Alice Lee. (Photos courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

The double elimination format is a bit unusual for the chess world. As a brief refresher: the tournament consists of a series of two-game classical matches (with blitz tiebreaks) in the Champion’s Bracket. But when a player loses a match, rather than be eliminated a la the World Cup, they instead head to the Elimination Bracket. Here, they play rapid matches (with blitz tiebreaks), with the loser of each match being eliminated from the tournament.

The Champion’s Bracket ends with the Champion’s Final. The loser of the Champion’s Final plays the last player still standing in the Elimination Bracket in the Elimination Final, and the winner of that match earns a return match in the Grand Final against the Champion’s Final winner. If the Champion’s Final winner wins the match, they win the tournament. If they lose, then we get a reset in the Grand Final, triggering a one-day, two-game rapid match.

This report will focus on the games and results of the Champion’s Bracket. Keep an eye out for future Tactics Tuesday and Wednesday Workout columns for tactical highlights of the Elimination Bracket.

Women

We all know that IMs Carissa Yip and Alice Lee are fierce competitors who are always eager to square off against each other — be it chess or thumb wrestling — but just how much do they love playing each other?

Carissa Yip (L) and Alice Lee were on a collision course for an epic final. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Austin Fuller)

Well, their Champion’s Final match went to tiebreaks, with Lee winning a three-result game over Yip. But Yip raced right back for a rematch, where a couple of even draws led to another blitz tiebreak, this time going all the way to Armageddon before Yip took the win to send the match to a whole extra day of chess on Thursday.

Lee’s path to the Grand Final began with a strategic squeeze against WIM Rachael Li, followed by a tactical victory over WGM Zoey Tang.

Lee (L) against Rachael Li. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Austin Fuller)

Zoey Tang surprised herself by winning on demand against Irina Krush to force (and win!) tiebreaks in her first match. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Tang made the second round by winning the most exciting match of the Champion’s Quarterfinals, where she dispatched two-time American Cup champion GM Irina Krush despite losing her first classical game:

After winning the return match and splitting the first pair of blitz tiebreaks, Tang broke through in the third tiebreak game:

After missing a mating net against IM Anna Zatonskih in the first classical game, Yip didn’t blink twice when presented with another mating attack:

Then, Yip outgunned IM Tatev Abrahamyan in the latter’s favorite French Defense to book a date in the Champion’s Final.

Yip played into Tatev Abrahamyan's favorite opening twice this week and emerged with two wins. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Abrahamyan won her Champion’s Quarterfinals match against IM Anna Sargsyan after missing a good chance in the first game before bringing home the point in the double-edged return game.

Abrahamyan won both matches against Anna Sargsyan in St. Louis. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

The first of three Yip – Lee matches. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In the Champion’s Final, after two draws in the classical portion, Lee won the blitz tiebreak 2–0 after getting out to a lead in the following wild game:

Yip again got the better of Abrahamyan’s French in the Elimination Final to book a return match against Lee.

Handshakes kicking off the Grand Final. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

After two more draws in the classical portion, things got interesting. In the first blitz game, Yip was pushing, but a late endgame blunder gave Lee the full point.

But Yip won on demand with the black pieces to force a second tiebreak:

This time, Lee took control with the white pieces, again setting up a must-win game for Yip.

The tense tiebreak during Wednesday's first Grand Final. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Lee had two chances to close out the tournament on Wednesday, but was unable to hold either. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Again, Yip came back unbothered, blitzing out to a quick initiative. After some nerves converting the position, she eventually regained composure to score the win.

This set up the an Armageddon game, with Lee having the white pieces and an extra minute on the clock, but Yip taking draw odds. Going back to her trusty Pirc Defense, Lee was unable to get anything out of the opening. The only question was whether Yip was going to win the game or merely draw it, with both results being good to force a Grand Final rematch:

Thursday's Grand Final rematch. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

In the first rapid game of the final day, Yip jumped out to a promising position with a lead on the clock. But after missing the exact moment to strike, Lee quickly wrestled control of the position away from Yip and, in a materially imbalanced position, got the better of her:

Yip was unable to create much of anything in yet another must-win game, and, once the draw was agreed, Lee secured her third consecutive American Cup, earning $49,000 for her victory. Yip took home $30,000 for her runner-up finish, with Abrahamyan earning $20,000 for third and Sargsyan $15,000 for fourth.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC

Open

GM Wesley So won his first American Cup, pocketing $90,000 without ever losing a match.

Thank you to Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield for having me at this event! I owe them so much as far as my chess career is concerned. Thank you to all the @STLChessClub staff as well for being so kind to me. Everyone concerned makes sure it is a pleasure to play in St Louis. From food…
— Wesley So (@WesleySo_) March 11, 2026

So’s path to the Champion’s Final began with a pair of blitz playoff victories against GMs Ray Robson and Sam Sevian in the Champion’s Quarterfinals and Semifinals, respectively.

Wesley So was in control on the way to the Grand Final. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Sam Sevian won a fine game against Leinier Dominguez to advance to the Champion's Semifinals. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

Sevian reached the Champion’s Semifinals with a fine win over GM Leinier Dominguez:

In the Champion’s Final, So was set to face GM Fabiano Caruana, who essayed a nice tactical victory in the first classical game against GM Abhimanyu Mishra before taking down GM Awonder Liang in blitz:

Caruana jumped out to an early lead in the Champion's Final, but So was undeterred. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

When two players of this caliber face off, the classical games can become a bit of a formality. But rather than save their best chess for blitz, each player came out swinging in the Champion’s Final, with Caruana striking first after an enterprising opening decision from So:

Winning on demand in classical against Caruana is no easy feat, but nobody said winning the Champion’s Final was supposed to be easy. Here’s how So took the match to playoffs:

So joked with commentator Maurice Ashley that his first loss to Caruana had him wanting to follow in Ashley's footsteps and retire! (Photo courtesy SLCC/Lennart Ootes)

After a draw in the first blitz tiebreak game, the players reached the following imbalanced position where Caruana made the fatal error:

The win put So in the Grand Final, while Caruana had to face GM Levon Aronian in the Elimination Final. Aronian fell to the Elimination Bracket after blundering a rook in blitz to Liang in the first round, having to claw his way through the entire Elimination Bracket just to reach the finals.

Left: Liang and Aronian joke with the head arbiter between games. Right: The three Armenian-Americans celebrate each other's successes!

Armenians! — Left: Liang and Aronian joke with the head arbiter between games. Right: The three Armenian-Americans celebrate each other's successes!

There, Caruana won the first rapid game, only for Aronian to strike back to again send Caruana to tiebreaks. In a bit of déjà vu, Caruana again drew his first tiebreak game with the black pieces, only to lose as White in the second game.