Woodward Beats Caruana as Eight of 12 Games Are Decisive

Round 5 of the 2026 U.S. Championships was the bloodiest round yet across both tournaments: eight of the 12 games were decisive. The biggest result came in the Open, where GM Andy Woodward beat defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana.

Woodward’s best win

Woodward joined GM Wesley So in the lead on 3.5/5. The game was a slow, positional squeeze in the QGD Ragozin Variation, and Woodward made fantastic use of the bishop pair.

He told GM Maurice Ashley it was his career best: “I’ve beaten some low 2700s, but this was the first time beating Fabi.” The conversion, per Chess.com’s report, wasn’t engine-perfect, but it was enough to beat the third-highest-rated player of all time.

For Caruana, who came into the event chasing a fifth straight title and Reshevsky’s record, the loss is a real dent. He had joined So in the lead a round earlier and now drops behind.

The rest of the Open

So held a Berlin Defense against GM Grigoriy Oparin to stay level with Woodward at the top. A Berlin draw is a typical So result: it costs him nothing, and he keeps pace without risk.

The other decisive games went to GM Jeffery Xiong, who beat GM Levon Aronian, and GM Ray Robson, who beat GM Hans Niemann. GM Abhimanyu Mishra also won, against GM Sam Sevian.

The only other draw was GM Awonder Liang against GM Sam Shankland. Shankland’s Dragon Sicilian petered out to an equal endgame. Liang sits a half-point behind the leaders, and Shankland is a full point back.

Lee pulls clear in the Women’s

Seventeen-year-old IM Alice Lee leads the Women’s Championship by a full point. She beat IM Tatev Abrahamyan with Black to reach 4.5/5.

Her closest trailers are WIM Rachael Li, who beat WGM Jennifer Yu, and FM Megan Paragua, who beat IM Nazi Paikidze. WGM Thalia Cervantes is also among them after a draw with GM Irina Krush.

IM Rose Atwell won a brilliancy against defending champion IM Carissa Yip, but she is on 2/5. Yip’s loss leaves the defending champion well off the pace in her own section as well.

A full-point cushion with six rounds left is not decisive, but Lee now controls her own fate. The chasing group will need her to slip, and she has dropped only half a point so far.

Round six is on Thursday, October 15, starting at 1 p.m. ET.