Three-time national champion GM Wesley So celebrated his 33rd birthday with a win over GM Sam Shankland in the first round of the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship, which started in St. Louis on Friday. GMs Jeffery Xiong and Awonder Liang were the others to start with a win, scoring over GMs Sam Sevian and Hans Niemann, respectively.

The 2026 U.S. Women's Chess Championship saw four decisive games in the first round, among them an unfortunate queen drop by GM Irina Krush in a clearly better position that enabled WIM Rachael Li to win. IM Anna Zatonskih and FMs Thalia Cervantes and Megan Paragua were the others to start the event with a win. 

The second round of both the tournaments will be on Saturday, October 10, starting at 1 p.m. ET / 19:00 CEST / 10:30 p.m. IST. 

And just like that, the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women’s Chess Championship are underway! Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield rang the bell to officially kick off Round 1 at the Saint Louis Chess Club. 🔔 The games are on, and two weeks of exciting chess lie ahead. Let’s go! #USChessChamps

— Saint Louis Chess Club ( @STLChessClub) October 9, 2026

Standings After Round 1: Open

Standings After Round 1: Women

Open: Wins For So, Xiong, Liang

Round 1 Results: Open

The prize fund for the tournament stays identical to last year at a base of $250,000.

But the tournament features bonus prizes for finishing first outright, a number of wins in a row, and a strong finish.

The event gains in significance this year, as it is the official tournament for the U.S. FIDE zone, serving as the qualification event for the next world championship cycle. The only change to the lineup from the previous year's championship is that Xiong replaces GM Dariusz Swiercz.

After the games between GMs Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana, and GMs Abhimanyu Mishra and Ray Robson ended in draws without incident, Liang scored the first win of the day against Niemann. 

Surprisingly, Liang himself was not too impressed by his win when he spoke after the game. "It was a pretty bad game overall, the worst game of both sections... We both were missing everything."

It was a pretty bad game overall, the worst game of both sections.

—Awonder Liang

Of course, the game did feature a number of tiny mistakes by both players, the biggest being Liang's missed opportunity to win Niemann's queen.

White can trap the black queen here by playing 30.Bc5!, winning the game.

But when you go through the game carefully, you will notice that Niemann tried to create chances for himself ambitiously throughout the game. From a slightly inferior position with the black pieces, he ignored the soundness of his own position, creating weaknesses around his own king.

Xiong scored a win over Sevian with the latter's blunder in a pawn endgame costing him the game. It featured the brilliant endgame theme known as 'related squares,' requiring accurate calculation for which one needs time, more than anything. Unfortunately, Sevian being down to his last few minutes in the final period didn't help him find the correct continuations. 

With the game between GMs Grigoriy Oparin and Andy Woodward ending in a draw, the most dramatic encounter of the day was between So and Shankland. The latter had earlier announced his ambitions for the tournament with a colorful tweet.

Hanging out with some folks my own age before the US Championship starts tomorrow. The kids don't know what's coming for them! https://t.co/zepNWpfqYO

— Sam Shankland ( @SamShankland) October 8, 2026

So set the tone of the game early on, impressing with his opening preparation and sacrificing a pawn to gain a better position by the late middlegame. However, the game took too many twists and turns afterward, ending in So's favor after an 80-move-long fight. This is our Game Of The Day, annotated by GM Rafael Leitao below.

So celebrated the occasion suitably afterward, with a cake and a note of thanks.

33 ❤️ Thank you to my mom and thanks everybody! https://t.co/XEnaDNRRvL

— Wesley So ( @WesleySo_) October 9, 2026

Women: Difficult Day For Olympians

Round 1 Results: Women

Again, the prize fund stays identical to last year at a base of $152,000, and the same bonus prizes as mentioned above.

The women's section, too, has a change from the previous year, with WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan replaced by Li. Fresh to the tournament, Li received a welcome gift of sorts when her opponent Krush hung her queen in a clearly superior position.

Two of Krush's teammates from the recent olympiad in Samarkand also suffered setbacks.

IM Tatev Abrahamyan had a better position against FM Thalia Cervantes but overlooked a turnaround to let the game slip away. With less than three minutes on her clock, Abrahamyan allowed her opponent to develop a dangerous attack.

Another member of the Olympiad women's squad, IM Rose Atwell, also lost her game, after getting slowly outplayed by IM Anna Zatonskih. The first round also brought up the fight between the top two seeds, IMs Carissa Yip and Alice Lee. It proved to be a fantastic clash, with both players having winning chances at some point in the game. Ultimately, Yip's time pressure proved to be the spoiling factor, and the game ended in a draw.