GM Hans Niemann ended GM Abhimanyu Mishra‘s 71-game unbeaten streak to join GMs Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana in the 2025 U.S. Chess Championship lead after round five. So’s sole lead ended with a 15-minute draw against GM Levon Aronian and he was also caught by Caruana, who ground out a win against GM Dariusz Swiercz. The day’s other win was for GM Andy Woodward, who pounced on a blunder by GM Sam Sevian to grab his first win.
Defending champion IM Carissa Yip defeated runaway leader IM Anna Sargsyan to blow the 2025 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship wide open. IM Alice Lee took full advantage to catch Sargsyan with a third win in four games, this time over IM Nazi Paikidze. GM Irina Krush and IM Tatev Abrahamyan also grabbed wins, over FM Megan Paragua and WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan respectively.
The sixth round of the U.S. Championships starts on Saturday, October 18 at 1:30 p.m. ET/19:30 CEST/11 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 5: Open
So’s quick draw allowed both Caruana and Niemann to catch him.
Standings After Round 5: Women
Yip’s win over Sargsyan enabled Lee to catch the leader and Krush, IM Anna Zatonskih, and Abrahamyan to move within half a point.
Open: Niemann, Caruana Catch So
There were three wins in round five, with two of them crucial at the top of the table.
Round 5 Results: Open
So had spent the rest day winning an intense 3.5-hour Speed Chess match against GM Vincent Keymer, so that when he incorrectly guessed Aronian’s opening (he said he expected the French, not 1…e5) he steered toward a Four Knights draw in under 15 minutes. He said in the post-game interview:
It’s not ideal, but I played the Speed Chess Championship yesterday in the hotel, it was a very tough match against Vincent Keymer. He was outplaying me for a long time, he was destroying me in certain positions, but I finally managed to get him in the overtime.
A 15-minute draw in So-Aronian, which means Caruana & Niemann both have a chance to catch Wesley in the lead! https://t.co/JE3LakGSZQ pic.twitter.com/MMnIGe0WgZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 17, 2025
So added, “If you can make a draw in four hours or 10 minutes, you might as well do it in 10 minutes and get a rest day!”
If you can make a draw in four hours or 10 minutes, you might as well do it in 10 minutes and get a rest day!
—Wesley So
So has won countless tournaments playing safely while leading, but in this case he was caught not by one but by two players.
Caruana, gunning for a fourth title in a row, said he felt his clash with Swiercz was “a very important game to win,” adding, “that’s why I played the Caro-Kann which I don’t normally play, just to get a surprise in.”
There was little wrong with how Swiercz played, but his clock handling put him on the brink, as he got down to under a minute just when Caruana was getting in the moves 25…Bh4! and 26…g5!, after which he said he felt “very optimistic.” It was death by a thousand cuts for Swiercz.
When WGM Anastasiya Karlovich asked Caruana if he was a “trained killer” he was taken aback but then decided to take it as a compliment, even if he added, “With the years it goes down a little bit, the sense of urgency to win every game.”
The other big win was a second in a row for Niemann, who didn’t fear Mishra’s 71-game unbeaten streak as much as some others since he’d won three of the four classical games he’d played against the 16-year-old. That confidence showed through in a confessional appearance, where Niemann stated, “But now I’ve the two bishops, he can’t really play d5, so it’s going to be a long, technical game.”
It was indeed a long game, but it was very sharp and Mishra correctly played 17…d5! at a moment when it was equalizing. Niemann shrugged off that blow, and other resourceful play by Mishra, to regroup and go on to win a fantastic ending. 53.a5?! got computer disapproval, but after 53…g2! Niemann did everything right.
The checkmate finish was funny, since Niemann signalled he’d seen a stalemate trap of promoting to a queen, commenting, “I’m more teasing him that he can resign—I took the knight and the bishop, because I can do either one, just to show my options.”
There was more teasing, this time of GM Magnus Carlsen, when Niemann remarked, “It reminds me of the last time I broke an unbeaten streak in St. Louis.”
It reminds me of the last time I broke an unbeaten streak in St. Louis.
—Hans Niemann
It wasn’t only Carlsen, with Niemann clarifying he’d broken three streaks:
First in Sinquefield, then the last U.S. Championship, Leinier [Dominguez] and now Mishra, so I suppose I’m a heartbreaker. Someone has to be the villain!
The final win of the day was a first in a U.S. Championship for 15-year-old Woodward, who had been under pressure against Sevian and confessed, “This game wasn’t that great of a game.” The way he pounced on the mistake 25.f4? was brilliant, however.
The remaining two games were drawn, with GM Ray Robson‘s drastic clock handling not hindering him in making a relatively comfortable draw against GM Sam Shankland. GM Awonder Liang, meanwhile, missed great chances to win a tricky game against GM Grigoriy Oparin. In the end it came down to a rook vs. rook + bishop endgame that Oparin held in 104 moves.
Saturday’s round six is when we cross the halfway mark of the tournament, with two clashes that could be huge for the final standings: Aronian vs. Niemann and Caruana vs. So. Caruana said of that clash:
I think the game will take slightly longer than today… Of course Wesley is really tough. Wins against him come maybe every few years, but I will try to play a good game!
Round 6 Pairings: Open
Women: Lee Catches Sargsyan As Yip Beats Leader
If anything, the Women’s section was even more dramatic, with four wins and big changes at the top.
Round 5 Results: Women
“If I’d lost this one I’m kind of out of the running and she’s just sprinting away with it,” said Yip about her clash with Sargsyan, who entered the round with a one-point lead over the field and a two-point lead over Yip. In fact Yip would say a lot, since as she noted, “Sometimes I get a little bit bored so I want to chat!”
She was delighted the confessional booth was finally up and running, and used it to dispel rumors about her sweater.
“This is not a Christmas sweater!” — Carissa Yip in the confessional 😀🎄 pic.twitter.com/GYjGX8MYwd
— chess24 (@chess24com) October 17, 2025
When Yip did get to the game she was on point, however, noting that if her opponent went for an aggressive plan with g5-g4 it was likely to backfire. It did, with Yip winning a spectacular game that’s our Game of the Day, and has been analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov below.
That loss for the leader saw her caught by Lee, who has now scored 3.5/4 since turning 16. She inflicted a second loss in a row on two-time champion IM Nazi Paikidze, in a game that could have been very quick, since White was completely busted by move 10!
Krush and Abrahamyan meanwhile took the chance to move within half a point of the leader. “My main takeaway is that I’m never going to go to the confessional booth again,” said Krush after she went there to explain she’d played 10…e5 to prevent her 12-year-old opponent playing e5 herself and provoking mass exchanges.
Krush felt she then lost her focus and her position deteriorated, but in the end the logic held, as she went on to grind out a win over Paragua—and as for statistics, all four players who visited the confessional went on to win!
“I feel great, I think I played a very good game, I got a good position out of the opening, and got all of my prep,” said Abrahamyan, who credited a couple of hours of puzzle solving on the rest day as helping her to a second win in a row. For her opponent, Pourkashiyan, it was a painful fourth loss in a row.
Of the two draws, WGM Thalia Cervantes vs. IM Anna Zatonskih was quiet, while WGM Jennifer Yu missed a big chance to join the players in third place when she allowed FM Rose Atwell to escape.
Round six is headlined by the huge clash Krush vs. Yip, with Yip still playing catch-up.
Round 6 Pairings: Women
How to watch?
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.
