U.S. Championship: Round 11
By Cameron W. · Thu, 22 Oct 2026
Rachael Li Wins the Women's Title at 16, While Wesley So Loses to Sam Sevian and Faces Fabiano Caruana in a Playoff.
The final round in Saint Louis on Wednesday settled one title and forced a tiebreak for the other. In the women's, rookie Rachael Li, 16, drew Anna Zatonskih to win the U.S. Women's Championship outright. In the open, Wesley So lost to Sam Sevian while Fabiano Caruana beat Awonder Liang, leaving them tied on 7/11 and heading to a playoff today, Thursday, October 22, at 1 p.m. ET (19:00 CEST).
Open section: So falls, Caruana wins on demand
So entered the round a full point clear and needed only a draw to clinch his fourth title. Sevian, who was last on 2.5/10, outplayed him in a heavy-piece endgame after getting an edge in a Nimzo-Indian and reached a winning rook ending. The loss ended So's 48-game unbeaten run in the U.S. Championship. Sevian now leads their lifetime record with three wins and no losses, and he said he likes facing So in classical chess, where he can work out So's ideas.
Caruana had said after Round 10 that there was "zero percent" chance So would lose. He won anyway. Playing the Tarrasch Defense, he used 6.Bf4, an idea his second Grigoriy Oparin had shared in Wijk aan Zee this year, and launched a kingside attack. The first wave did not break through, but 26.Ne4! started a second one. Jeffery Xiong beat Hans Niemann after Niemann's late 54.Bxg7?? and knocked him out of the 2700 club, while Oparin drew Ray Robson. Oparin and Xiong tied for third on 6.5, and the top five finishers qualify for the next FIDE World Cup.
The playoff opens with two rapid games at 15+10. If tied, a second pair of 15+10 games follows, then a 5+2 blitz match, another blitz match if needed, and finally Armageddon, according to Chess.com. A win would give Caruana his fifth straight title, which ChessBase has said would match Samuel Reshevsky's record, and his sixth overall, tying Walter Browne. Only Bobby Fischer and Reshevsky, with eight each, have won more, according to the Wikipedia list of winners.
Women's section: Li clinches, Lee wins on demand
Li reached a dead-equal opposite-colored bishop endgame and drew, finishing on 8.5 and half a point clear of Alice Lee, who won with Black against Anna Sargsyan and took sole second on 8. Zatonskih had declined a three-move repetition with 14.a3, which would have given Li the title instantly. She explained that repeating would be unfair to Lee, and Li said afterward she would have done the same.
Li is the youngest rookie to win the event, but not the youngest winner ever, a record that belongs to Irina Krush, who won at 14. Li earned the national master title at age nine, then stopped playing for three years from age 10 to 13. She said she felt relieved after the draw, having slept badly before the game, and thanked her brother, GM Ruifeng Li, for helping her prepare. Her prize came to $45,000, including the top prize, a $5,000 winner's bonus and the $5,000 Finish Strong Prize. She also gained about 50 rating points and her first IM norm, and she and Lee qualify for the next FIDE Women's World Cup.
Lee beat Sargsyan after a sacrificial attack was held by 28...Qe8!. She said she played badly overall and was losing in nearly every game she eventually won, and she takes $30,000 and a gain of 6.5 rating points. Krush beat Tatev Abrahamyan to finish sole third on 7.5, a recovery of 11 rating points after hanging her queen in Round 1. Rose Atwell finished with a queen sacrifice that beat Nazi Paikidze.
