Caruana Heads a 12-Player U.S. Championship Field in Saint Louis

The Saint Louis Chess Club has announced the fields for the 2026 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. Each event has 12 players, competing over the board from Oct. 8 to 23, with Round 1 on Oct. 9. The total prize fund is more than $400,000.

Both events are 11-round, classical round-robin tournaments (how the U.S. Championship works). Games are streamed daily at 12:20 p.m. CST on the club’s YouTube and Twitch channels, with commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and WGM Katerina Nemcova.

The open field

Seedings use the US Chess July invitational ratings, not FIDE ratings. Fabiano Caruana is the top seed at 2831 and the defending champion, a five-time winner, and the only player who qualified as defending champion. Wesley So (2796) is next, followed by Hans Niemann (2770) and Levon Aronian (2768).

Awonder Liang (2753), Sam Sevian (2736), Ray Robson (2701), Jeffery Xiong (2693) and Sam Shankland (2692) all qualified on rating. Caruana’s 35-point margin over So is the widest gap between neighbors in the list. From fifth to twelfth, the field is bunched within 70 points.

Three players got in by other routes. Abhimanyu Mishra (2686) is the wildcard. Andy Woodward (2685) comes in as 2026 US Junior Champion, and Grigoriy Oparin (2683) as 2026 US Open Champion.

That makes the bottom of the table a tight pack, and it is where a round-robin tends to get interesting. With only 11 rounds, a single loss to a lower seed can reshape the race. So, a three-time champion, and Caruana are the obvious favorites on paper. Niemann, third on the list, is the name likely to draw the most attention.

The club also notes the championship has been held in Saint Louis every year since 2009. The event dates to 1845, and its past winners include Bobby Fischer, Seirawan and Hikaru Nakamura.

The women’s field

Carissa Yip is the defending, four-time champion and the top seed at 2505, the only player above 2500. Alice Lee is second at 2465. Irina Krush, an eight-time champion, is third at 2440.

Behind them come Rose Atwell (2427), Tatev Abrahamyan (2417), Anna Sargsyan (2404), Rachael Li (2382), Jennifer Yu (2373), Anna Zatonskih (2358), Nazi Paikidze (2336) and Thalia Cervantes (2311). Megan Paragua (2295) is the wildcard.

Yip’s lead over Lee is 40 points, and the whole field spans just 210. Krush’s eight titles give her the longest résumé, which makes her the most experienced player in a group that otherwise skews toward younger names.

Around the board

The opening ceremony on Oct. 8 doubles as the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame induction, honoring Montgomery Major and Jeremy Silman. Boris Gelfand’s World Chess Hall of Fame induction takes place the same night. Ulf Andersson, Nana Ioseliani, Vasyl Ivanchuk and Alexandra Kosteniuk follow on Oct. 24.

Daily tickets are $25, or $10 for club annual members, and include the playing hall and spectator lounge.

The second Saint Louis Chess Conference runs Oct. 22-24 at the Chase Park Plaza, with Garry Kasparov as keynote speaker. It overlaps the final days of the championships.

The month closes with Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown, Oct. 27-29. Nakamura, Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Javokhir Sindarov play an 18-game rapid double round-robin for $425,000. Caruana will have barely a few days between finishing the national title event and starting that one.