So Takes Sole Lead on 5/7 as Liang Falls in 27 Moves

Wesley So is now the only unbeaten player and the sole leader of the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship. He fought back from a worse position to beat Ray Robson in round seven, moving to 5/7 with three wins and four draws.

That puts him half a point clear of Fabiano Caruana and Andy Woodward, who both drew. It is a swing from round six, when four players shared first.

How So escaped against Robson

So had a satisfactory position with Black, then let Robson take control of the endgame. Robson failed to keep the edge as the players approached the first time control. After inaccuracies from both sides, the game simplified into a bishop endgame in which So had two connected passed pawns.

Robson could not find the precise defence. In her annotations for ChessBase, Martina Gerdts notes that 78.Kg6 was worse than 78.Kf5, because the white king ended up standing behind the pawns it was trying to stop.

Earlier, she points out that 35…Nd6 made things easier for Robson, and that So was fortunate to get 36.Re5 rather than 36.Nd7. A win was not guaranteed, but So took what was offered.

Liang’s 27-move collapse

The shock of the round was Awonder Liang’s loss to Grigoriy Oparin. Liang, who had shared the lead after round six, dropped to 4/7 with his second defeat of the event.

Chess.com called his 17…c5 puzzling, since closing the center left his dark-squared bishop ineffective for the rest of the game. Oparin, with White, built the pressure and Liang then missed a direct mating threat. After 26…Bd8 came 27.Bb7+ and Black resigned. The mate would have been 27…Kh8 28.Rxf8+ Ng6 29.Rxg8#.

Chess.com reads the late errors as fatigue, and that seems a fair guess with the event entering its final stretch.

Other Open games

Caruana drew Hans Niemann after a relatively balanced struggle. Woodward drew Sam Sevian, who defended against his kingside attacking attempts.

Levon Aronian collected his first win of the tournament against Sam Shankland, using his bishop pair and neutralizing counterplay. Five games were decisive in all.

Round eight pairs So with Woodward, who needs a win to catch the leader. Woodward has already beaten Caruana here, so he is not short of confidence.

Women’s: Li and Lee lead on 5.5/7

Rachael Li and Alice Lee both won to share the lead on 5.5/7. Lee, 17, beat Rose Atwell with Black after early difficulties, bouncing back from her round-six loss to Li, which ended a four-game winning streak.

Li, 16, beat Megan Paragua after an unusual opening setup and an active middlegame. She has won five of seven, with her only loss coming to Thalia Cervantes in round two.

Cervantes, the other co-leader and the only unbeaten player until now, lost to Anna Sargsyan. She overextended while trying to win, opening lines on the kingside, and struggled to defend under time pressure.

Irina Krush, the eight-time national champion, beat defending champion Carissa Yip in a sharp King’s Indian. Yip made the decisive mistake under heavy time pressure. Krush is on 5/7, half a point behind the leaders.

In round eight, So meets Woodward.