Woodward and Shankland Win as So and Liang Stay Level at 2.5

The top of the U.S. Championship open section did not change in round three. Wesley So and Awonder Liang met head-on and drew in 30 moves without much action, leaving both on 2.5/3. Behind them, two decisive games reshaped the chasing pack.

Liang had White and arrived having beaten Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian. So, by contrast, had survived difficult positions before beating Shankland and Xiong. A quiet draw suits both of them: neither gave the other a target, and both keep a half-point cushion.

Woodward gambles and wins

Andy Woodward, with Black against Ray Robson, was the day’s most entertaining story. He sacrificed the exchange for active play. ChessBase judged the sacrifice not entirely sound objectively, but it created real practical problems for an opponent already short of time.

Robson had chances to hold the balance and could have taken a draw. He kept pressing instead. Spending a lot of time on his options, he first gave up his edge with h3-h4, then made the decisive error on move 43 by pushing the h-pawn again.

It was Woodward’s first win after two draws. He moves to 2/3 and joins Fabiano Caruana half a point behind So and Liang. Caruana, who is chasing a fifth straight title, is the quiet presence in that group; our preview of his bid covers what is at stake for him.

Shankland punishes Xiong’s structure

Sam Shankland’s win with Black over Jeffery Xiong is Chess.com’s Game of the Day, annotated by GM Dejan Bojkov. Chess.com called Xiong’s strategic handling of the middlegame concerning. He allowed an isolated queen’s pawn, then weakened his kingside by accepting the traditionally brittle h3-g2-f3 pawn structure.

Shankland’s strike was 29…Nxf3!, exploiting that advantage. ChessBase adds that his pieces gradually infiltrated and he gave no meaningful counterplay. It was his first point of the event, a recovery from the opening-round loss to So.

Xiong has now won once (against Sevian) and lost twice.

Women’s section: three-way lead

Alice Lee moved to 2.5/3 when IM Nazi Paikidze blundered. Chess.com credits the blunder for the win. ChessBase says a one-move blunder turned Lee’s positional edge into a clear material advantage. Paikidze kept looking for compensation, but Lee neutralised the threats and she resigned.

Lee has had a bumpy start. She escaped with a draw from a losing position against Carissa Yip in round one, then overcame Jennifer Yu after again being in difficulty. She now shares the lead with Thalia Cervantes and 13-year-old Megan Paragua, who both drew their third-round games. Anna Zatonskih and Rachael Li follow on 2/3.

Li beat Anna Sargsyan after benefiting from a tactical mistake. Sargsyan had bounced back from a first-round loss with a win in round two.

Yip’s slide

The biggest surprise is Yip, the defending champion and a four-time winner. Tatev Abrahamyan beat her with White, after Yip’s ambitious middlegame play backfired and she failed to protect her king in time. Yip had missed winning chances against Lee in round one and then lost to Paragua. She is now on 0.5/3, near the bottom of the table.

Abrahamyan, who lost to Cervantes in round one despite a big advantage, climbs to 1.5/3.

What is gone, and what is next

With no one on a perfect score in either event, the $64,000 Fischer Prize is already off the table. It rewards an 11/11 score, matching Fischer in 1964.