GMs Fabiano Caruana, Awonder Liang, Sam Sevian, and Wesley So advance in the Champions Bracket of The American Cup 2026 after defeating GMs Abhimanyu Mishra, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, and Ray Robson respectively. Caruana held a draw and Sevian won in the second classical game, while Liang and So overcame their adversaries in blitz playoffs.
In The Women’s American Cup 2026, WGM Zoey Tang won a must-win game against GM Irina Krush, and then completed the turnaround in blitz playoffs. She advances with IMs Carissa Yip, Tatev Abrahamyan, and Alice Lee. Yip won with Black against IM Anna Zatonskih in the classical portion, Abrahamyan overcame IM Anna Sargsyan in a marathon queen endgame, and Lee pulled off the only 2-0 sweep, against WIM Rachael Li.
Day three of the American Cup is on Thursday, March 5, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET / 19:10 CET / 11:40 p.m. IST.
Open Champions BracketÂ
Women’s Champions Bracket
Besides the victories by Liang, Sevian, and Tang, the rating favorites won all the other matches. Two of the upsets occurred in blitz playoffs.
Open: Liang Upsets Aronian In Playoffs
Let’s start with the two matches decided in classical chess before moving onto the longer ones.
Mishra ½-½ Caruana
Caruana won the previous day and needed a draw with Black to win the match. In a Rossolimo Sicilian, Mishra’s big opening idea was 5.h3, a move that GM Yasser Seirawan described as “a strange way to play for a win.” A pawn move at the corner of the board—that’s the best you’ve got?
Caruana plunged into 15 minutes of thought before deciding on the response 5…e5.
It’s not one of the main lines, but it has been played in over 90 games. But Caruana later said, “h3, I just don’t know this move, I have to admit. It’s a new thing… I was basically trying to recall some prep I did in the match against Magnus, but that was eight years ago.”
Mishra’s intentions were anything but subtle on the next move, when he sacrificed a pawn with 6.b4!?, a move played only once before, just last year. Caruana took it, immediately returned the pawn, but in a few more moves White emerged from the opening with an advantage.
From an analysis point of view, the most interesting point was on move 18, when Mishra decided to trade bishops and win back some material on c6. Instead, Senior Stockfish shows that White’s best bet was retreating with the bishop and playing down a rook for three pawns. The opportunity was missed, and Caruana held a tough game.
Caruana advances and will play Liang in his next match.
Sevian 1-0 Dominguez
It was not only the first win of the match, but it was also Sevian’s first classical win against Dominguez. He prepared what he called a “tricky line” in the Italian Opening, though it eventually ended up in an opposite-color bishops middlegame. Because all the heavy pieces were still on the board, he felt there were still chances and that they were pretty one-sided. He explained, “It’s really difficult for him to liquidate into an endgame.”
A coolheaded decision, which paid off, was Sevian not capturing the pawn on move 23 when he had a chance. Instead, he kept on maneuvering, and Black’s mistake came in the form of misplacing his own bishop on c4. Sevian showed, as he’s shown before in St. Louis, what he can do to an open king when given the chance.
Explaining the decision not to capture a pawn earlier, he nicely said, “I prefer to play with queens on the board with attacking chances than up a pawn in an endgame.” As for getting a kind of windmill motif in his game, he quipped:Â “I think the last time I had a windmill was when I was 11!”
I think the last time I had a windmill was when I was 11!
—Sam Sevian
Sevian plays So next, and the next two matches were decided in blitz tiebreaks after a second draw in classical.
Liang ½-½ Aronian, 1.5-0.5 in Playoffs
After a speedy draw in the classical game, Liang defeated his higher-rated opponent in blitz playoffs.
“That’s somehow how it goes in modern chess,” said Liang after making the quickest draw of the day in a Four Knights Scotch. He said his goal in both games was to be as solid as possible, “just keep the match alive.”
His confession during the game had quite a bit more flavor than the classical game itself. In the opening phase, he shared his approval of the salmon crostini, and gave a cooking show-type of review after having eaten eight of them. He ate one just for the camera.
Awonder Liang enters the confessional booth to positively review the salmon crostini served to the players! He said he had eight in the first 10 minutes of the game. pic.twitter.com/YAloTyNB2e
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 4, 2026
Asked about his chances in the blitz playoffs, he said, “I think pretty poor compared to him, but maybe I’ll get lucky!” The match strategy worked out just fine.
Liang won the first game with the black pieces and then drew with White to win the match. It was all the more painful for Aronian that he was winning on the exact move when he blundered; capturing the pawn on d5 with the rook worked out, but the move played in the game did not.
Robson ½-½  So, 0.5-1.5 in Playoffs
The game between the former roommates at Webster University was the second to end. It was a solid Berlin Defense where the players, curiously enough, followed a 2025 Sinquefield Cup game that So, who had White in that game, won against GM Gukesh Dommaraju. But there was no advantage to speak of in this one and it ended in a draw.
“In The American Cup, I think everyone plays safe, you know,” said So. He said that at the 2025 FIDE World Cup he was eliminated by GM Titas Stremavicius precisely because he made the mistake of trying too hard to win in the classical portion.
Just like Liang, he won with the black pieces in game one of blitz playoffs, then made a draw from a winning position in game two to end the match. It was decided in a mad time scramble where it looked like Robson was the one attacking, only to be met with a vicious counterstrike.
Women’s: Tang Comes Back And Wins
Only Tang vs. Krush went to playoffs, with all the other matches decided in the classical portion. We begin in the reverse order, starting with the Game of the Day.
Tang 1-0 Krush, 2.5-1.5 in Blitz Playoffs
By rating, Krush is the second-highest in the field while Tang is second from the bottom. As Tang pointed out in the interview, however, this wasn’t even her first time beating Krush—and it wasn’t even the first victory in The American Cup. In 2024, Tang won the first classical game of their match but went on to lose the next three. Matches were four classical games previously, not two.
Having won the previous classical game, the eight-time U.S. women’s champion needed a draw to advance. She made the (sound) choice to sacrifice a pawn in order to simplify the position. Black’s position was salvageable, but as Tang showed, the defense was far from trivial. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the full game below.
It was the longest blitz playoff, lasting four games. Tang won the first game on time in an equal position, then lost from a superior position, then won in game three, and drew game four to take the match. Time was a critical factor in the match, as Krush just could not keep up. Tang said, “My strategy was just play fast. Especially after the first game when she flagged.”
In game three, Krush had just three seconds against a minute and 44 when she made the decisive error. The defensive resources were there, but she had no time to find them.
“It’s blitz, right, so anything can happen!” said Tang about the playoffs. As for her next match against Lee, she laughed and said, “I think I’ve drawn twice and I’ve lost every single other time.” What will she have to do? “Play better.”
Li 0-1 LeeÂ
The defending champion, Lee, needing just a draw to win the match, and she swept with 2-0.Â
Lee said that her opponent started thinking on move two when she played the Sicilian Defense, and not the Petroff. Her opponent likely expected the Petroff, which she’s played before, considering the match situation of needing just a draw.
The opening was a misfire for White, and by move 19 Black was already playing for the win. There may have been improvements here and there for Lee, but she was never in danger of losing.
How did Lee land on the Sicilian Defense? This year, she is using a random wheel generator to select her openings—a “don’t try this at home” strategy that is clearly working.Â
Zatonskih 0-1 Yip
Yip missed a big opportunity to win on the previous day and hadn’t stopped thinking about it, she told GM Maurice Ashley. “Of course, actually I just hate drawing games I should have won. I think I hate it more than losing games I should have drawn.”
She made up for it in this game, winning a game that perhaps her opponent should have drawn.
Taking advantage of her opponent’s low time, Yip went for a speculative exchange sacrifice 28…Rxe2!?. She explained, “Clock was a factor, of course, and I thought I should always have a perpetual [check] at least, so why not just go for it?”
The decision paid off. While the position was defensible for White, a wrong king move landed her in a tough situation—one where she quickly collapsed.
Yip plays Abrahamyan in the next match.
Abrahamyan 1-0 Sargsyan
Speaking of opening surprises on move two, Abrahamyan came prepared with 1. e4 e5 2.d3, a move Caruana’s played especially online.
Joining the commentary, Caruana explained, “I’m trying to popularize this move” and that “it has some unique ideas behind it. I played it against Magnus in the blitz world championship, I played probably like five-six in the blitz world championship with it.” He did well overall, but not against Carlsen.
Caruana also said, “Levon is the one who deserves credit for it, but I was the one who started to analyze it after the game,” after Aronian played it against him in 2024.
Abrahamyan joked, self-deprecatingly, “It’s a very classic Tatev variation, you know, surprising my opponent and then somehow ending up with less time than my opponent anyways.”
She ended up winning a very long queen endgame, though she pointed out that if her opponent had grabbed on b7 on move 40 the game would have likely ended in a draw. Instead, she showed some nice technique in the queen endgame, which can be difficult to win when facing many checks.
When The American Cup resumes on day three, there will essentially be four tournaments: an Open Champions Bracket, Open Elimination Bracket, Women’s Champions Bracket, and Women’s Elimination Bracket. The players in elimination brackets will be fighting for their lives in rapid games, with another match loss meaning they’re really out this time.
How To Review
The American Cup 2026, which takes place from March 3 to 12 in St. Louis, brings together the United States’ strongest players to battle in a high-stakes double-elimination knockout bracket across classical and rapid time controls. There is an open tournament and a women’s tournament, with the two time controls of 90+30 and 25+10 (with 3+2 blitz and potential armageddon as tiebreakers). The prize fund is $250,000 in the open and $150,000 in the women’s.
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