US Championship: Round 9
By Cameron W. · Tue, 20 Oct 2026
Round 9 in Saint Louis left both sections with a clear leader and two rounds to play. In the open, Wesley So drew defending champion Fabiano Caruana in a sharp Italian and stays a full point ahead on 6.5/9, in a round with five draws and one decisive game. In the women's, rookie Rachael Li beat Nazi Paikidze after a late blunder to reach 7/9 and secure her first IM norm, while all six games were decisive.
Round 9 in Saint Louis left both sections with a clear leader and two rounds to play. In the open, Wesley So drew defending champion Fabiano Caruana in a sharp Italian and stays a full point ahead on 6.5/9, in a round with five draws and one decisive game. In the women's, rookie Rachael Li beat Nazi Paikidze after a late blunder to reach 7/9 and secure her first IM norm, while all six games were decisive.
Open section: So weathers Caruana's preparation
Caruana needed a win, and for a while the game looked promising for him. So spent 20 minutes on move six of a Dubov Gambit in the Italian Opening and then faced an unexpected b4. "I literally wanted to resign," So said afterward, according to Chess.com, but he worked everything out over the board. The key moment was his novelty 11...a6, which Caruana said would be hard for a human to find, and So held the balance for the draw.
The one decisive game was Grigoriy Oparin's win over Sam Shankland, which lifts Oparin into a share of second place with Caruana on 5.5. Shankland chose a King's Indian and the queens came off. One side won the exchange, but Chess.com says the win slipped away into a theoretically drawn rook-and-pawn against bishop-and-pawn ending, where Oparin kept pressing until Shankland lost. Oparin said missing a win against Levon Aronian in Round 8 had been very frustrating, and Chess.com says he regathered himself over the rest day.
So is well placed, but Chess.com points out that he still has to get through two 2700-rated players, Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian. Niemann is on 3.5/9. Caruana and Oparin both need to win their games and hope So slips.
Women's section: Li pulls a point clear
Li pressed Paikidze for a long time before Paikidze escaped into a pawn-down but drawn knight endgame. Then came 79...Nb3, which let Li's pawn run one square too many, and Li had a win that Chess.com called a gift. She said she was proud to have come this far but that it was too early to celebrate with two rounds left. Her last two opponents are Rose Atwell and Anna Zatonskih, both in the bottom half of the standings.
Irina Krush and Alice Lee are next on 6. Krush beat Lee in a Reti, getting an early advantage and finding 25.Rb8!, a rare case where giving up two rooks for a queen was the right idea. It is a strong recovery for the eight-time champion, who hung her queen and lost in Round 1 and lost to Jennifer Yu in Round 8. Yu then won again, beating Thalia Cervantes, who had been half a point off the lead and loses ground. Megan Paragua, who is 13, beat Zatonskih after calculating 34...Rd4 in time trouble and moved into clear fifth.
At the bottom, Tatev Abrahamyan beat Atwell and both are on 3.5. Abrahamyan said she is burned out and wants the tournament to be over, though her priority is protecting enough rating to qualify for the next American Cup. Defending champion Carissa Yip won from a losing position against Anna Sargsyan, who missed 36...e4, and is still tied for last with Sargsyan and Paikidze. Yip called it probably her worst tournament ever.
