It's the GM Wesley So show at the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship as the three-time winner coasts to the final round with a full-point lead on GMs Fabiano Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin. He made a quick draw with GM Hans Niemann to maintain that lead, but there were two decisive games in this section. GM Sam Shankland won a sharp game against GM Sam Sevian in the Sicilian Najdorf Poisoned Pawn Variation, while GM Levon Aronian worked his magic to beat GM Ray Robson in a queen endgame.

Rookie WIM Rachael Li is in the home stretch of the 2026 U.S. Women's Chess Championship with a full-point lead on just one player, IM Alice Lee. There were five decisive games out of six, with wins scored by Li, Lee (a must-win to stay in the race), IM Tatev Abrahamyan, IM Carissa Yip, and IM Anna Sargsyan against IM Rose Atwell, WGM Thalia Cervantes, IM Anna Zatonskih,  IM Nazi Paikidze, and WGM Jennifer Yu, respectively. The one draw was in FM Megan Paragua vs. GM Irina Krush.

The 11th and final round is on Wednesday, October 21, starting at 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CEST / 10:30 p.m. IST.

Standings After Round 10: Open

Standings After Round 10: Women

Open: So Stays In Lead

Round 10 Results: Open

There were several dramatic games and two decisive ones, but nothing changed the prevailing fact that So is one round away from earning his fourth national title in the U.S. Along with the prestige, it comes with a $55,000 payday (not including the Winner's Bonus of $7,000 or the Finish Strong Prize of $5,000). No player will earn the Fischer Bonus Prize, for which one must win a minimum of five consecutive games to be eligible.

It was a quick day at the office for Grandmaster So, who finished his game with Niemann in less than an hour. A theoretical line of the Nimzo-Indian Defense quickly went into an endgame with mass trades. The strategy in the final stretch, in his words, is "to remove games from the tournament."

So shared mixed praise for his opponent on the broadcast after the game. "Hans is a really good player. I actually had high hopes for him for his first Olympiad this year, but it didn't work out well. I'm not sure what's going on with his classical chess career." So said that a few months ago, Niemann looked to be competing at the level of GMs Javokhir Sindarov and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. "Because he said he's going to be the classical world champion, I'm not sure when he's planning on this dream. Because he told me a couple of days ago that he's focused on other chess formats, not classical," So added.

A draw is a good result in the next round, but So said he would also like to win. He noticed that he's briefly higher than GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who lost in round two of the European Club Cup 2026, and that he, So, was back in the top-five. He'd like to keep it that way.

As for the three other draws, the most consequential were GM Jeffery Xiong vs. Caruana and Oparin vs. GM Abhimanyu Mishra, as a win in either game could have put Caruana or Oparin a half-point behind the leader. Caruana even played the Scandinavian Defense as an attempt to win with Black, but his opponent played a perfect game. Both boards exhibited 99 accuracy by all four players.

"Nobody checks the Scandinavian anymore. It's not so bad!" Sounds like a ringing endorsement from Fabiano Caruana! https://t.co/2LvzOQg8dc

— chess24 ( @chess24com) October 20, 2026

There was also a draw between GMs Awonder Liang and Andy Woodward, leaving both players on 5.5 points—a good score, but not enough to win the tournament. 

As for the two decisive games, the battle of Sams was the most exciting as Sevian rejuvenated the highly theoretical and relatively rarely seen Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Najdorf Sicilian. Shankland wasn't expecting a Najdorf at all and said, "I think he got a little too ambitious at some point.... This was certainly not a glorious win for me, but after everything I've been through this tournament I'll take it."

This was certainly not a glorious win for me, but after everything I've been through this tournament I'll take it.

—Sam Shankland

It was a full-on slugfest, with both players finding game-winning and game-saving resources as well as committing game-losing mistakes. Indeed, when Sevian had a relatively "risk-free" advantage in the end, he made the last blunder, the unfortunate and irreversible 35...Qg1??. It's a game full of twists and turns, and GM Rafael Leitao takes us through the Game of the Day below.

Aronian won the other decisive game against Robson, and although he's on 50 percent he said that calling it in is not an option for his final rounds. His second, GM Mikhail Antipov, came to work for Aronian even as he was expecting his child to be delivered. Aronian revealed that Antipov left the tournament in the morning of round 10 and was present for his baby's birth that very day.

Aronian: "It's easy to just finish the tournament and kind of give up on the tournament, but my second, he came here while he was expecting a baby. The guy sacrificed a lot to be here, so I cannot just give up on the tournament." GM Mikhail Antipov's baby was born this morning and Antipov was there for the birth, Aronian shared.

— chess24 ( @chess24com) October 20, 2026

Aronian won very nicely in the queen endgame with equal material, but one where he had the more dangerous-looking passed pawn. Robson had to find the difficult only move 52...Ke4!!, sacrificing his g-pawn and blocking his own pawn temporarily, to save the game.

So must lose the next game and Carauna or Oparin must win theirs for us to see tiebreaks on Thursday. The odds are in So's favor, but the tournament isn't over until the scoresheets are signed!

Round 11 Pairings | Open

Women: Li Wins, Lee Wins On Demand

Round 10 Results: Women

The women's tournament continues to deliver high-quality and fighting chess. Following up on an all-decisive round nine, we saw five more decisive games in round 10.

The most important was, of course, Rachael Li's victory against Atwell—which would have clinched the tournament with a round to spare if not for Alice Lee winning her game as well. The first prize for the women's championship is $35,000 (not counting bonuses)—a nice paycheck for a first-timer! You'd think that the rookie might be nervous, but she isn't. She said:

I kind of don't really feel anything. I just feel like every game is just a game that I'm practicing for something, like another tournament in the future. So it's like the emotions aren't really as wild as one might think they are. I'm kind of just chill.

I'm kind of just chill.

—Rachael Li

In the trivia portion of the broadcast, the commentators learned that Li played 38 FIDE-rated classical games in the month of August. If one wants to be a champion, it pays to play a lot. Li told GM Maurice Ashley that she often played as many as four or five games in two days, as well as fitting in games on travel days.

Against the 17-year-old Olympian, Li managed to win a piece, but even after that the win wasn't so easy because her knight was trapped on e7. In a practical game, though, it was too difficult for Atwell to defend forever with a piece less, and the final mistake unsurprisingly came.

So far Li is set to gain over 50 rating points and is performing at a nearly 2600 level. On the live rating list, she is number 31 in the world.

The other critical game was Lee's win against Cervantes. She said, "I feel like it's not really in my control right now, but I'm happy that I was able to win this game to at least keep a very small chance of winning the tournament alive." She was in some trouble in the game, but she found an interesting exchange sacrifice to at least make Black's life difficult. Lee explained, "If I don't sacrifice the exchange, all my pieces are just so badly placed... I kind of thought I had to go for something interesting."

It didn't take too long after that for Cervantes, in a difficult position with just two minutes against 27, to make an instantly losing mistake, 36...Kh7??.

The defending champion, Yip, scored a win against Paikidze—curiously enough, playing a second game in a row where tripled pawns led to her advantage. But the tournament is far out of reach as she's on 4/10, and it's about damage control in the final stretch as she is currently set to lose 29 rating points.

We saw two swashbuckling miniatures, with Abrahamyan's win certainly being one for the puzzle books. There's a reason GM Ben Finegold made the rule "Never play ...f6 [or f3]," and this game is a perfect illustration of how a single pawn move fatally weakens the king. Abrahamyan sacrificed a bishop, a knight, and a rook for the checkmate.

Sargsyan, playing the Schara Gambit, also won a quick game against Yu in just 26 moves. She said, somewhat self-deprecatingly, "At least I'm not entirely hopeless in this game!" Certainly not, and White's lag in development led to very concrete problems early on. The two-time U.S. women's champion was lost by move 17.

For Alice Lee, the dream scenario is that she beats Sargsyan on demand with the black pieces and that Rachael Li also loses against Zatonskih. Otherwise, we will congratulate the debutant on Wednesday!

Round 11 Pairings | Women