US Championship: Round 5
By Cameron W. · Thu, 15 Oct 2026
Round 5 in Saint Louis on Wednesday produced four wins in each section, as Andy Woodward beat defending champion Fabiano Caruana to join Wesley So on 3.5/5 in the open section. In the women's, Alice Lee beat Tatev Abrahamyan to reach 4.5/5, a full point ahead of three chasers, while defending champion Carissa Yip lost again.
Round 5 in Saint Louis on Wednesday produced four wins in each section, as Andy Woodward beat defending champion Fabiano Caruana to join Wesley So on 3.5/5 in the open section. In the women's, Alice Lee beat Tatev Abrahamyan to reach 4.5/5, a full point ahead of three chasers, while defending champion Carissa Yip lost again.
Open section: Woodward topples Caruana
Woodward, the U.S. Junior champion, beat Caruana in a Queen's Gambit Declined, Ragozin Variation, with a slow positional squeeze built on the bishop pair. According to Chess.com, the conversion was not engine-perfect but was enough, and Woodward called it the best win of his career. It was Caruana's first loss of the event, and it leaves him on 3/5, half a point behind the leaders, in his bid for a fifth straight title, which would match Samuel Reshevsky's record, according to ChessBase.
So drew with Grigoriy Oparin in a Berlin to stay level with Woodward. Jeffery Xiong beat Levon Aronian when, as Chess.com describes it, Aronian's piece sacrifice turned out not to be temporary after 23...Bb5!, giving Xiong his first win over Aronian. Xiong has not drawn a game and stands at three wins and two losses. Ray Robson beat Hans Niemann in a rook endgame decided by an outside passed a-pawn, and Abhimanyu Mishra won the longest game of the day against Sam Sevian, converting a rook-and-pawn against bishop ending after more than 100 moves for his first win of the event. Awonder Liang and Sam Shankland drew a Dragon Sicilian.
So and Woodward lead on 3.5. Caruana, Liang and Xiong are on 3, and Shankland, Oparin and Mishra on 2.5.
Women's section: Lee pulls clear, and Yip slips further back
Lee won her fourth game in a row since a Round 1 draw, beating Abrahamyan in a pawn-down endgame that Chess.com says Abrahamyan could objectively have held, until 29.Rd4? went the wrong way. Lee is now a full point clear of Rachael Li, Megan Paragua and Thalia Cervantes, who share second on 3.5.
Li beat Jennifer Yu after 11...Nd5 allowed 12.a3 and threatened to trap the piece. Paragua beat Nazi Paikidze with an early b4 in a Caro-Kann Exchange, finding 30.a5! to lock the queenside and remove Black's counterplay. Rose Atwell beat Yip with a crushing exchange sacrifice, leaving Yip with two draws and three losses through five rounds and a rating drop of 24 points, according to Chess.com. Cervantes drew Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih drew Anna Sargsyan, which by the round-by-round results puts Krush and Zatonskih on 3.
Sources
- Chess.com, “2026 U.S. Chess Championships Round 5: Woodward Topples Caruana; Lee On 4.5/5 After Bloodiest Day Yet”
- ChessBase, “US Championships: Caruana climbs to the shared lead in the open, Lee takes the sole lead in the women’s”
- Liquipedia, US Chess Championship 2026
- ChessBase, U.S. Championships 2026 (Round 1)
