U.S. Championship: Round 4
By Cameron W. · Wed, 14 Oct 2026
Round 4 in Saint Louis on Monday produced a new co-leader in the open section, as Fabiano Caruana beat Ray Robson to join Wesley So on 3/4, while Jeffery Xiong knocked Awonder Liang out of the lead. In the women's section, Alice Lee beat overnight co-leader Megan Paragua to go clear on 3.5/4, her third straight win.
Round 4 in Saint Louis on Monday produced a new co-leader in the open section, as Fabiano Caruana beat Ray Robson to join Wesley So on 3/4, while Jeffery Xiong knocked Awonder Liang out of the lead. In the women's section, Alice Lee beat overnight co-leader Megan Paragua to go clear on 3.5/4, her third straight win.
Open section: Caruana catches So, and Xiong upsets Liang
Caruana won a rook endgame in 77 moves against Robson, his second win of the event, and now shares the lead with So, who drew with Levon Aronian. The round's biggest upset came on another board, where Xiong beat Liang in a Berlin endgame. According to Chess.com, Xiong gave up a minor piece on move 29 in a position it called objectively equal, and Liang went wrong in his defence.
Hans Niemann beat Abhimanyu Mishra and Grigoriy Oparin beat Sam Sevian, both in endgames, and Oparin's was queen and knight against queen and bishop. Andy Woodward and Sam Shankland drew. That leaves So and Caruana on 3, with Liang and Woodward half a point back on 2.5. Aronian, Shankland, Xiong, Oparin and Niemann all sit on 2, which makes the middle of the table a five-way tie.
Women's section: Lee goes clear, with a crowded chase
Lee won a rook-and-pawn against bishop endgame over Paragua, who had missed a chance to win earlier in the game, according to U.S. Chess. It was Lee's third win in a row after a Round 1 draw, and it puts her half a point clear of Thalia Cervantes, who drew with Anna Zatonskih and sits alone in second on 3.
Irina Krush beat Nazi Paikidze for her second straight win, recovering from a queen blunder in Round 1. Behind Cervantes, four players now share 2.5: Krush, Rachael Li, Paragua and Zatonskih, based on the round-by-round results. The rest of the round was quiet, with the remaining games drawn.
Round 5 pairings
Round 5 is on Wednesday, October 14, at noon Central (19:00 CEST). In the open section, Woodward has Caruana in the pairing U.S. Chess flagged as the key one, So has Black against Oparin, and Liang has White against Shankland. In the women's section, Tatev Abrahamyan has White against Lee, and Krush has White against Cervantes.
Caruana, who has won the last four U.S. titles, is chasing a fifth in a row, which would match Samuel Reshevsky's record, according to ChessBase. Lee, meanwhile, will try to protect her half-point lead against Abrahamyan, who is on 1.5.
