U.S. Championships Off to a Hot Start

The 2026 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship wasted no time, delivering us a host of exciting pairings right from the jump. Round 1 featured, among other highlights, three battles between 2026 Olympiad teammates and two match-ups between former U.S. champions, producing seven decisive results overall across 12 games.

As is tradition, Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield marked the start of this year's tournament with the ringing of the bell. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Today’s report features annotations by GM Jason Liang. Read on to learn a thing or two about endgames!

Women’s: Headliners Draw, Youngsters Surprise

Hot off a silver medal performance on Board 1 in Samarkand, IM Carissa Yip began her quest for a fourth consecutive U.S. championship against arguably her toughest competitor: IM Alice Lee. Lee won the Cairns Cup earlier this year before pocketing a gold medal for her Board 2 performance at last month’s Olympiad. While the game ended peacefully, the back-and-forth duel was exactly what we expect from these two.

Carissa Yip came out strong as Black against Alice Lee but will have to wait another year for a shot at the Fischer Prize. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

The opening went well for Yip, who achieved the sort of King’s Indian Defense structure she thrives in while eschewing theoretical variations. One impatient pawn thrust from Lee on move 18 put Yip in control, and by move 30 she was up a pawn with a winning position. But Lee created massive complications from there, and one inaccuracy from Yip brought Lee back into the drawing margin.

Alice Lee defended brilliantly to save a draw against Carissa Yip. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

The clash of former champions WGM Jennifer Yu and IM Nazi Paikidze also ended peacefully after Yu was not able to capitalize on moderate early attacking chances. The four other games ended decisively and emphatically.

13-year-old FM Megan Paragua delivered a statement win against 2025 runner-up IM Anna Sargsyan. Rather than seek out a theoretical novelty in a well-trodden line, Paragua played simple chess to squeeze her experienced opponent before pouncing on an attacking chance.

It took Paragua until Round 11 to score her first win in her 2025 debut. This year, it only took one round to match her win total from last year. Too bad last year’s games don’t count towards this year’s streak-based Fischer Prize!

WGM Thalia Cervantes made the most of practical counter-chances as Black against IM Tatev Abrahamyan. While Abrahamyan’s position was objectively for choice, she was unable to make a number of difficult defensive decisions to survive.

GM Irina Krush appeared to be cruising to a win against WIM Rachael Li after the 16-year-old appeared unprepared for Krush’s Four Knights Sicilian, losing a key central pawn early. And then…

The four youngest players in the U.S. Women's Championship. From left: Alice Lee, Rachael Li, Rose Atwell, and Megan Paragua. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

Finally, IM Anna Zatonskih won a very exciting French Defense as Black against fellow Francophile IM Rose Atwell. Zatonskih showed excellent poise under time pressure, reaching the second time control while maintaining a fatal attack.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

Today, Cervantes – Li offers a chance for either player separate from the pack. The two other co-leaders, Zatonskih and Paragua, each play Black (against Paikidze and Yip, respectively). Krush-Atwell features another intra-Olympiad clash, while long-time rivals face off in Sargsyan – Abrahamyan. Finally, in Yu – Lee, we have The Game.

Open: So’s Birthday Present, Xiong and Liang Impress

GM Fabiano Caruana started his campaign for a fifth straight title with a short draw by repetition as Black against GM Levon Aronian. Aronian admitted to being surprised by Black’s early 6. … Bd6 in the Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Rather than risk being taught a lesson by a known theoretical menace, Aronian was happy to bail out.

GM Abhimanyu Mishra drew GM Ray Robson as White in a Najdorf Sicilian and GM Grigoriy Oparin likewise got nothing as White against GM Andy Woodward. The remaining three games, though, were far more exciting.

Graphic courtesy of SLCC.

In another intra-Olympiad battle, GM Awonder Liang’s 34-move demolition of GM Hans Niemann was the first decisive game to finish. Niemann began losing the thread around move 19, but it’s hard to criticize many of his individual moves as Liang just played flawlessly from a strong position.

Jeffery Xiong essayed a brilliant king-and-pawn endgame victory against Sam Sevian. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

In another victory for the tournament’s anti-draw policy (no draw offers allowed before move 60), GM Jeffery Xiong took down GM Sam Sevian in a mesmerizing pawn endgame that could have been pulled straight out of Dvoretsky’s Endgame Manual. The game remained perfectly balanced eight moves into the second time control, when this happened:

Finally, GM Wesley So appeared to have given himself a great 33rd birthday present against the 2018-champion. By move 20, So had the type of strategic advantage he has made a living off of converting.

In the longest game of the day, Wesley So ultimately secured a victory on his 33rd birthday. (Photo courtesy SLCC/Crystal Fuller)

But one passive decision gave Shankland a chance for a knockout blow and, even after missing it, very good drawing chances deep into the rook-and-pawn endgame. But So was undeterred, continuing to pressure Shankland and eventually forcing an error.

Today, Xiong – So pits two of the co-leaders against each other while Liang is Black against Sevian, but somehow the three games that don’t involve Friday’s winners all have more interesting narratives!

In Niemann – Aronian, the Olympiad teammates go head-to-head. Will Niemann push for a bounce-back win against a notoriously clever and tricky opponent? Then, Caruana – Oparin puts the top seed against his trainer. In Woodward – Mishra, the two-time reigning U.S. Junior champion faces a familiar rival in the 2023 U.S. Junior winner.