U.S. Championship: Round 6
By Cameron W. · Fri, 16 Oct 2026
Round 6 in Saint Louis on Thursday left both sections wide open. In the open, Fabiano Caruana bounced back from his first loss and Awonder Liang beat Levon Aronian to join Wesley So and Andy Woodward on 4/6. In the women's, Rachael Li ended Alice Lee's four-game winning streak, and Li, Lee and Thalia Cervantes now share the lead on 4.5.
Round 6 in Saint Louis on Thursday left both sections wide open. In the open, Fabiano Caruana bounced back from his first loss and Awonder Liang beat Levon Aronian to join Wesley So and Andy Woodward on 4/6. In the women's, Rachael Li ended Alice Lee's four-game winning streak, and Li, Lee and Thalia Cervantes now share the lead on 4.5.
Open section: four leaders, and a close chase
Caruana beat Sam Shankland with Black in the Queen's Gambit Declined, Magnus Variation. Neither player made a serious mistake over the first 25 moves, according to Chess.com, until Shankland's 26.Kd3? turned the game, and Caruana converted it in 11 more moves. His loss to Woodward the day before had ended an unbeaten run of 54 games in the U.S. Championship, and he said afterward that he had not played well and was under pressure throughout. He is chasing a fifth straight U.S. title.
Liang won the other decisive game, beating Aronian after Aronian traded queens on move 29, which Liang explained cost Black control of the f6-square and left him facing checkmate. It was Aronian's second loss in a row, and Liang now leads their head-to-head record +4 -1 =7. So and Woodward kept their places with draws. Woodward held a pawn-down queen endgame against Hans Niemann after being slightly worse in a Ruy Lopez, and 17-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra held a piece-down endgame against So, who had briefly been winning with an extra pawn.
Jeffery Xiong is half a point back on 3.5, and seven of the 12 players are within a point of the lead. None of the leaders meet in Round 7, but So plays Woodward in Round 8. The prize fund also includes $5,000 in each event for the strongest performance across Rounds 6 to 11, whatever the final standings.
Women's section: Li stops Lee, and Yip finally wins
Li beat the leader Lee, who had won her previous four games since a Round 1 draw. Li said her aim with Black was a draw, but Lee gave her chances in the middlegame, and Lee's 13.b4? overextended her position and allowed counterplay on the dark squares. Lee was never fully equal afterward, and Chess.com says Li was never worse. Cervantes, the second-lowest-rated player in the field, beat Nazi Paikidze with queen against two rooks and said she had no business winning, with the result decided in time trouble.
Irina Krush beat Anna Sargsyan for her third win of the event, despite Sargsyan finding the saving move 39.Rf6! at one point. She now sits a half point behind the leaders on 4, alongside Megan Paragua, who saved a difficult game against Tatev Abrahamyan. Defending champion Carissa Yip scored her first win, over Anna Zatonskih, in 30 moves after Zatonskih, playing on two minutes against Yip's 20, lost a piece. Yip started the round on 1/5 and said she can be a streaky player. Jennifer Yu also held a two-pawns-down rook endgame against Rose Atwell.
Round 7
Round 7 is on Friday, October 16, at 1 p.m. ET (19:00 CEST). In the women's, Atwell plays Lee, who is coming off her first loss of the event. The other pairings were only available as images in the sources reviewed.
