GM Fabiano Caruana kept his half-point lead over GM Wesley So as both top GMs won their game in the penultimate round of the 2025 U.S. Chess Championship on Thursday in St. Louis. GM Levon Aronian drew his game and is now a point behind So.
By scoring her fifth win in the last six rounds, IM Carissa Yip grabbed the sole lead at the 2025 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. She is half a point ahead of a group of players that does not include IM Anna Zatonskih, who lost her first game, to IM Anna Sargsyan.
The final round of the U.S. Championships starts on Friday, October 24, at 1:30 p.m. ET/19:30 CEST/11 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 10: Open
A playoff on Saturday is not out of the question with Caruana still half a point ahead of So.
Standings After Round 10: Women
Yip is on fire. After starting the tournament with a loss, she is now in clear first place.
Open: Caruana Still Half A Point Ahead
Day 10 was an exciting one with four decisive games in the Open group.
Round 10 Results: Open
In a round with multiple games going beyond the first time control, Caruana won the longest game of all. It was only after 93 moves that GM Abhimanyu Mishra had to throw in the towel, having defended well for so long.
“I really thought it would be a draw for a long time,” admitted Caruana. “It was very difficult, a very long game and I always had to calculate some things that never happened because the position was always kind of threatening to open up but never quite did. Just a very difficult
game.”
Caruana explained his opponent’s final blunder as “just exhaustion because of course he put the king in line with the bishop. It’s a tactic he would see in a second any day.”
Caruana is definitely not there yet as So won as well. He needed 72 moves with the black pieces to take down GM Dariusz Swiercz.
“I didn’t expect to win today, I was also quite tired,” said So. “I mean, it’s been a long tournament for me, preparing intensely openings and then playing it takes a toll.”
So was happy to see the opening with 1.Nf3 and 2.b3, which meant that Swiercz was ready for a fight. “Objectively I wasn’t better. Also in the endgame I think it’s just equal, maybe even a bit better for White, but he as usual he used up all his time so I was happy to keep game going. Even when I won a pawn maybe it’s still a draw but I was able to trick him.”
GM Sam Sevian won a good game against GM Hans Niemann, who had good drawing chances despite being an exchange down but couldn’t hold it.
Round 11 Pairings: Open
Women: Yip On Fire
It was a rare occasion of more draws among the women than among the men this time.
Round 10 Results: Women
Yip is truly on fire with a superb score of 5.5 points out of her last six games. Playing IM Nazi Paikidze and having the same pawn structure as in the previous round, she once again didn’t mind giving up her pawns in the center in return for active play.
“I think we were both probably out of prep sort of quickly,” Yip said. “Probably critical was this 11…c5 12.dxc5, just giving up this e5-pawn. I am still not sure how good it was, but I think it put Black under a bit of pressure.” Around move 30, Black’s position still appeared solid, but things went downhill quickly.
Asked about her chances now, Yip said: “I’m just very happy about my win. I’m trying not to think too much about my competitors. Yeah, there could be a playoff. It would be pretty exciting!”
GM Rafael Leitao will soon provide his analysis of the Game of the Day below.
In another key game for the tournament, Zatonskih had to suffer her first loss. Sargsyan won a good game, even though the opening wasn’t too promising for her with the white pieces.
“So I was preparing Carlsbad today in the morning and I knew that I should not play 9.Nf3 because of 9…Nh5. I played 9.Nf3, she played 9…Nh5,” Sargsyan smiled in her post-game interview. “I was so mad and then continued to play that position, which I think is already equal for Black.”
Sargsyan felt it was the tension that got to her opponent: “I think she was very nervous today because the position we got, let’s say after 14.Qc2, she already had 45 minutes, she could have one hour and 30 minutes honestly for that position because she plays Carlsbad all the time. I think the pressure was too much for today’s game.”
I think the pressure was too much for today’s game.
—Anna Sargsyan
Sargsyan is in the group half a point behind Yip together with IM Alice Lee, who drew with FM Rose Atwell, and GM Irina Krush who beat IM Tatev Abrahamyan in what Krush described as one of her “cleanest wins in this tournament.”
It has been an up-an-down event for Krush, but after 10 rounds, she is not out of contention yet to win her ninth title. Reflecting on this, her comments were admirable:
“You want to win tournaments, but you also want to win your own personal battles, right? (…) Especially the last one that I lost against Carissa was very kind of upsetting to me just because I felt like I played such a bad game and it’s just a bit of a pity, you know, to play like that and it’s such an important matchup. But, you know, the thing that you learn is you just got to keep going. I mean, I know after a whole lifetime of playing chess, everyone sort of knows that, but I feel like you can’t learn that lesson enough, right? You just got to keep going. Don’t ever think it’s over for you.”
Don’t ever think it’s over for you.
—Irina Krush
Round 10 Pairings: Women
The 2025 U.S. Chess Championship and 2025 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship are 12-player single round-robins that run October 12-24 in St. Louis and determine the chess champions of the United States. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment from move 1. The Open event has a $250,000 prize fund and $55,000 for first place, while the Women’s is $152,000 with $35,000 for first.Â