U.S. Champs: Yip Clinches Third Title, Alice Lee Makes Her Move

With a round to spare, IM Carissa Yip has won the 2024 U.S. Women’s Championship and the $35,000 first prize (plus a $5,000 winner’s bonus). GM Fabiano Caruana still leads GM Awonder Liang by a half-point in the 2024 U.S. Championship. 

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This is the 21-year-old’s second consecutive championship and third in four years. It is also, strangely enough, the second straight year Yip has won the championship in a round where she lost her game. Read on for all the details of a tense penultimate round in St. Louis, with annotations courtesy of WGM Katerina Nemcova. 

Women’s

Two days ago, Yip was 8/8 and dreams of a bonus $64,000 prize were all anybody could talk about. She had already moved on from her “Fabi era” and was ready to level up from her “Gukesh era” as well. Then, FM Megan Lee snapped Yip’s 20-game streak without a loss and shrunk Yip’s lead over the field to “only” 2½ points with three rounds to go. Yip had not been shy about sharing her emotions online during the event, and Monday’s round was no different:

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— Carissa Yip (@carissayipchess) October 22, 2024

Clearly, Yip wanted to “bounce back,” and a chance to play her favored King’s Indian Defense against her Olympiad teammate IM Anna Zatonskih provided her a great opportunity. But experience prevailed in a caustic middlegame and Zatonskih delivered Yip her second consecutive loss:

The only player who had a mathematical chance of catching Yip entering this round was another Olympiad teammate, IM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. But, first, Tokhirjonova had to get past another member of the Olympiad team in 15-year-old IM Alice Lee.

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For most of the game, it looked like Tokhirjonova would hold at least a draw. This meant that, if Yip lost again in the final round, another win would be enough for Tokhirjonova to catch the leader. But, even if all rook endgames are “theoretically drawn,” disaster can strike at any moment.

With Lee’s win, she caught up with Tokhirjonova with a 6½/10 score. At 8/10, Yip has clinched clear first as a result. In today’s final round, Yip can “thank” Alice personally in their head-to-head game. The other critical encounter will be Tokhirjonova – Abrahamyan, as either Tokhirjonova or Lee can claim outright second if they win and the other does not. 

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Speaking of WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, it was a heartbreaking day for the former Olympiad member against GM Irina Krush. Abrahamyan had a winning position but a game-losing blunder swung things in the eight-time U.S. Women’s champ’s direction. 

FM Megan Lee had a chance to join the race for second as well, but her loss to WGM Thalia Cervantes left her a full point back in clear fourth with 5½/10 as Cervantes moved up to a share of fifth with an even 5/10 score. 

Finally, FM Rose Atwell notched a second win in the 15-year-old’s first U.S. Women’s Championship with a “study-like” finish against WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan. 

Open

The “title fight” of this round was GM Leinier Dominguez’s shot against GM Fabiano Caruana with the white pieces. A sophisticated and well-prepared player, Dominguez’s “solid” style does not produce many wild games, but it does require great care to keep him from maintaining and converting a modest edge.

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Caruana managed to do just this, taking advantage of one slightly timid choice to neutralize any threats and move within one game of claiming another championship.

With GM Awonder Liang holding an uneventful draw against GM Wesley So, Caruana’s 6/9 score keeps him a half-point ahead of Liang (who gets his turn against Dominguez today). GM Ray Robson has finished the event with 5½/10.

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If Caruana loses with the white pieces against GM Sam Shankland, GMs Sam Sevian and Hans Niemann could both reach the six-point mark with a decisive outcome in today’s head-to-head match-up. 

This turn of events is especially disappointing for Shankland, who lost to Sevian in yesterday’s round to stay on 4/9. Had he won that game, he could have caught up to Caruana himself with a win today. But, in a remarkably complicated game, Sevian prevailed:

Niemann had a serious chance to move closer to Caruana, as well, but eventually had to settle for a draw:

Coverage of the final round begins today at 1:20 CDT.

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