Three-time U.S. Champion Wesley So beat 2018 Champion Sam Shankland to take the sole lead in the 2025 U.S. Chess Championship on 2.5/3. He’s trailed by half a point by GMs Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, who made quiet draws with the black pieces against GMs Awonder Liang and Sam Sevian respectively. The day’s other winner was GM Grigoriy Oparin, whose first ever win in the event came when GM Andy Woodward went astray in a seemingly innocuous position.
IM Nazi Paikidze checkmated IM Tatev Abrahamyan to catch IM Anna Sargsyan in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship lead on 2.5/3. WGM Jennifer Yu could have beaten Sargsyan, but lost her way in time trouble, while GM Irina Krush and IM Alice Lee moved into third place with wins over FMs Rose Atwell and Megan Paragua respectively.
The fourth round of the U.S. Championships starts on Wednesday, October 15 at 1:30 p.m. ET/19:30 CEST/11 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 3: Open
So has taken the lead after round three, with Caruana and Aronian half a point back.
Standings After Round 3: Women
No one will win the Bobby Fischer prize in 2025 after Sargsyan lost her 100 percent record and was caught by Paikidze.
Open: Wesley So Takes The Lead
For a third round in a row there were two decisive games in the Open section.
Round 3 Results: Open
Round three was much quieter than what had gone before, with none of the four draws catching fire. Caruana got nothing against Liang’s Alapin, later commenting, “I played the Sicilian so I was ready for a fight, but I was kind of mentally prepared that he might play c3 to play it super-safe.”
GM Abhimanyu Mishra notched up a remarkable 70 classical games unbeaten, but although he played a novelty on move seven of the Nimzo-Indian he got little against GM Dariusz Swiercz except for an advantage on the clock.
Aronian and Sevian also played a curious Nimzo-Indian where queens were exchanged on move seven and 12…N4xc5!? raised some questions.
Sevian may have missed some slight chances as the game fizzled out into a 44-move draw.
GM Hans Niemann‘s title challenge is yet to ignite as he was comfortably held to a draw by GM Ray Robson, who played the rock-solid Petroff Defense as he stabilized after his loss to So the day before. So, meanwhile, went on to win again, in what was by far the highlight of the day in the Open section.
Wesley So 1-0 Sam Shankland
It’s four years since So won the last of his three U.S. titles, but he’s back where he thrives—in the sole lead. In his post-game interview with WGM Anastasiya Karlovich he made a by now familiar expression of gratitude:
Very happy! Totally unexpected. Obviously as a Christian all wins belong to God alone, so I’m hoping to have a strong middle and finish in this event.
He beat Shankland, the only other player to win in round two, but it’s hard to consider the result too unexpected given their lifetime record. So has now won nine classical games to Shankland’s zero, a record he partly put down to his familiarity with his opponent. He pointed out they’d worked together 10-11 years ago, and on the U.S. team, and said, “I think I’m a player who’s very good at copying other people’s styles.”
I think I’m a player who’s very good at copying other people’s styles.
—Wesley So
It also helped that So guessed the opening, explaining: “In Uzbekistan he was playing the King’s Indian against 1.d4 and the Najdorf against 1.e4, so this tournament I thought he’d stick to the Caro-Kann!”
So said he’d prepared up to around 13.b4, when he already had a promising position.
An active move such as 13…Bh3!? (ideally a move earlier!) seems to give Black a playable position, but after 13…Ka8?! 14.b5! So had a powerful attack which he went on to convert brilliantly.
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov analyzes below.
The day’s other win essentially turned on one move.
Andy Woodward 0-1 Grigoriy Oparin
In his first U.S. Championship in 2024 Oparin won no games and lost three, so he was understandably thrilled to grab a first win, especially when the opening had promised little. “I guess I surprised him with my setup in the Catalan—he knew pretty well what to do, but I knew it better,” said Oparin, but he also noted that he was expecting his 15-year-old opponent simply to force trades of pieces and take a draw.
Woodward, playing for the U.S. title for the first time, didn’t shut things down, however, with Oparin saying he “started playing way too passively.” White was already under pressure when he collapsed in one move with 32.Qb1?, when 32.Qb3! should still hold.
After 32…bxc4! it wasn’t just that White had given up a pawn, but that the d4-pawn was also doomed, with Oparin assuming his opponent “forgot” he couldn’t take on a5. Woodward wasn’t given the slightest glimmer of hope for the remainder of the game.
If So is going to win a third game in a row he’ll need to end the 70-game unbeaten streak of Mishra, while the pursuing Caruana and Aronian both have the white pieces in round four against opponents they heavily outrate. Shankland-Niemann may also see Niemann targetting a win against a player who just suffered a harsh defeat.
Round 4 Pairings: Open
Women: Paikidze Catches Sargsyan
In the Women’s section draws were the exception.
Round 3 Results: Women
The slow start continues for IM Carissa Yip, the winner for three of the last four years, as she got little against the French Defense of IM Anna Zatonskih.
That sharp tussle was the closest we got to a quiet draw, since the game of the leader, Yu vs. Sargsyan, was anything but quiet. In fact 2019 and 2022 Champion Yu was winning in the middlegame but, 20 minutes behind on the clock, couldn’t keep control. By the end Sargsyan even had the nominal advantage as she pushed for 3/3, but winning a pure rook vs. bishop endgame was always a tough ask.
That draw gave a chance for Paikidze, the winner in 2016 and 2018, to catch Sargsyan, and she grabbed it with both hands as she launched a crushing attack, later explaining:
As I was preparing I was hoping she’d play the King’s Indian and then I was in the mood for a long strategic game with a chance to attack the king, because I know Tatev’s very dangerous if she’s the one attacking. So today I made sure she didn’t have the chance for that, I didn’t castle long, I castled short, and I went all-in.
The highlight of the game was 21.Nef5!!, a sacrifice that was hanging in the air long before it appeared on the board.
There was already no defense, and Abrahamyan graciously allowed the game to end in checkmate.
Paikidze commented, “It’s been too long since I’ve been the leader in this event—many, many years—so it feels absolutely amazing!”
It’s been too long since I’ve been the leader in this event—many, many years—so it feels absolutely amazing!
—Nazi Paikidze
It’s not going to be easy, however, with two of the favorites, Krush and Lee, picking up their second wins to keep within half a point. Krush won a pawn and ground out a win against Atwell, while Lee took over in the middlegame, finding some nice tactics to overcome Paragua.
WGM Thalia Cervantes scored a first win of the event, against WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan, and felt it was “somewhat smooth.” She correctly grabbed a pawn on a7, though Pourkashiyan could have held the rook endgame.
Round four, the last before the first rest day, features some big clashes, including Krush vs. Yu and Lee vs. Yip.
Round 4 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.
