Weekly Recap: The U.S. Championship Tightens in Saint Louis While Youth Records and Upsets Pile Up

Eighteen stories this week, and the biggest share came from Saint Louis, where the U.S. Championships went from a two-man lead to a four-way tie and back to a single leader. Around that, a Chinese final went to Armageddon, an 11-year-old moved closer to a record, and two big youth and tournament-calendar stories rounded things out.

The U.S. Championships

The open section started the week with Wesley So and Awonder Liang drawing in 30 moves without much action in round three. Both stayed on 2.5/3. Two decisive games behind them reshaped the chasing pack.

In round four, Fabiano Caruana beat Ray Robson to join So in the lead on 3/4. Liang lost to Xiong that day. Alice Lee took the sole top spot in the women’s event.

Caruana also won Titled Tuesday on the rest day, finishing outright first on 9.5 points. It did not carry over to the board. In round five, Andy Woodward beat the defending champion in the bloodiest round yet, with eight of 12 games decisive across both tournaments.

By the halfway point, So, Woodward, Caruana and Liang shared the open lead. In the Women’s, Rachael Li beat leader Alice Lee, which left a three-way tie at the top.

A round later, So beat Ray Robson to lead alone on 5/7, half a point ahead of Caruana and Woodward, while Li and Lee share the women’s lead on 5½/7.

Finals, norms and upsets elsewhere

Yu Yangyi won the Shenzhen Nanshan Masters by beating Ding Liren in an Armageddon game with White. The all-Chinese final could not be separated until the second tiebreak stage.

In Norway, Rinat Jumabayev won Fagernes on tiebreak with 7½/10, the only unbeaten player in the 62-player GM section. Tiger Hillarp Persson and G. B. Harshavardhan also reached 7½ but had weaker tiebreaks. Christian Gloeckler, 14, secured his second GM norm.

At the Atyrau Masters, both top seeds lost within two rounds. Nguyen Duc Hoa (2405) beat Shamsiddin Vokhidov (2649), and Sergey Sklokin-Bagiyan (2477) beat Leon Luke Mendonca (2629). Anand and Ahmad lead on 3/3.

The European Club Cup opened in Budva, where the favourites swept round one but Nils Grandelius lost to a 55-year-old club player.

In Germany, Viernheim lead Baden-Baden on board points after three Bundesliga rounds. Both clubs took 6 match points, but Viernheim have 17½ board points, four more than their rivals.

Young players

IM Roman Shogdzhiev, 11, scored his second GM norm in the Serbian Super League. He needs one more norm and 29 rating points to pass Abhimanyu Mishra’s 2021 mark as the youngest grandmaster ever.

The 2026 FIDE World Championships U7-U17 opened in Roquetas de Mar with 721 players from 82 countries. It runs until October 21 at the Evenia Zoraida Beach Resort.

In the Under-13 Open, Egypt’s Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamed has won all six games. After the rest day he meets Danis Kuandykuly of Kazakhstan, the rating favourite, who has dropped only one draw.

History and the calendar

Munich 1936 was an event the Greater German Chess Federation called an Olympiad, though FIDE never gave it that status. We looked back at the tournament FIDE never recognised, which ran from 17 August to 1 September alongside the Olympic Games.

Rafael Vaganian was born in Yerevan on 15 October 1951, and turns 75 this week. His career covers the Soviet school, the post-Soviet years and a long stretch in German club chess.

For planners, European organizers have 330 tournaments on the November calendar, and 199 seniors are heading to Usedom for nine days. In Asia, 168 tournaments are tracked, and Bengbu’s 198-player classical tops the list.