Nakamura Leads Clutch Chess on 4/6 After Day One in Saint Louis
At the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown in Saint Louis, Hikaru Nakamura finished day one in front on 4/6, with two wins and four draws. Javokhir Sindarov is…
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Clutch Chess Pays $125,000 to Win, With Points Rising Daily
The Saint Louis Chess Club hosts the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown from 27 to 29 October, and the field and format are now set. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru…
So Beats Caruana 1.5-0.5 in Playoff for Fourth US Title
GM Wesley So won the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship, beating defending champion GM Fabiano Caruana 1.5-0.5 in rapid tiebreaks. It is his fourth national title…
Li, 16, Takes Women's Title as So Stumbles, Caruana Forces Playoff
Wesley So walked into the last round of the U.S. Championship a full point clear. He walked out in a playoff. GM Sam Sevian outplayed So in a heavy-piece…
So Draws Niemann in Under an Hour, One Round From a Fourth Title
Wesley So needed very little time on Round 10 day. He drew Hans Niemann in under an hour and kept a full-point lead over Fabiano Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin in…
So Holds Caruana to a Draw and Keeps His Full-Point Lead
Wesley So held onto his full-point lead in round nine of the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship by getting through defending champion Fabiano Caruana. It was a…
So Beats Woodward in a Pawn Ending, Leads Caruana by a Point
Wesley So has beaten Andy Woodward in a pawn endgame in round eight of the U.S. Championship. That puts him on 6/8, a full point clear of Fabiano Caruana, and…
231 Players Set for North American Youth Championship in Mexico City
We are tracking 131 tournaments across North America for November 2026, 98 of them classical and 33 rapid. The events below are a selection weighted toward the…
Fischer's Game of the Century at 70, and the Magazine That Never Printed It
On 17 October 1956, a 13-year-old from Brooklyn sacrificed his way through Donald Byrne's position at the Marshall Chess Club. In the October 2026 issue of…
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…
Caruana and Liang Join a Four-Way Lead After Round 6
Six decisive games on Thursday reshuffled both U.S. Championships at the halfway point. In the Open, GMs Wesley So, Andy Woodward, Fabiano Caruana and Awonder…
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…
Caruana Joins So in the Lead as Liang Falls to Xiong
Round four of the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis was a day for long endgames, and it reshaped both sections. Fabiano Caruana beat Ray Robson to join Wesley…
Caruana Wins Titled Tuesday on a U.S. Championship Rest Day
Fabiano Caruana won Titled Tuesday on October 13 on what was an off day in the 2026 U.S. Championship, where he currently shares the tournament lead. He…
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,…
So and Liang Lead Open at 2/2, Bottom Seeds Top the Women
Round two of the 2026 U.S. Championships thinned the leaders in both sections. In the Open, GMs Wesley So and Awonder Liang both won again and sit on 2/2, down…
Caruana Chases a Fifth Straight US Title, and Reshevsky's Record
Fabiano Caruana has won the US Championship four years running, from 2022 to 2025. As he defends the title in Saint Louis, a fifth straight win would equal a…
Dubov Needs 100 Wins, a Club Player Needs Just Half a Point
The most interesting thing about this match is the scoring, not the players. Josh Smith, a 49-year-old Arizona businessman rated in the 1800s by US Chess, is…
Toronto's 165-Player Rapid Tops North America's September
The largest tournament we tracked in North America in September was a Toronto Chess Centre rapid on Sept. 27, the CYCC & OCC event at Stephen Lewis Secondary…
Nakamura Wins a Fourth Straight Bullet Brawl With a Score of 155
GM Hikaru Nakamura claimed the $400 first prize at Bullet Brawl for the fourth week in a row, finishing the two-hour arena on 155 points. The win also gives…
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…
Nakamura Wins Bullet Brawl Again, This Time by 25 Points
GM Hikaru Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for the third consecutive week on September 26, finishing with 172 points, 25 clear of the field. It was his 68th Bullet…
Carrillo Wins Second Term Atop FIDE Americas, 29-12
Continental elections rarely make headlines outside the federations that vote in them, but this one carried a clear margin. On September 24, during the 46th…
Toronto's Junior Championship Tops a Crowded October Slate
October brings 109 tracked tournaments across North America, and the data points to a continent where Canadian and Mexican club events, rather than US majors,…
Nakamura's 66th Bullet Brawl Win Extends an Absurd Streak
Hikaru Nakamura won Bullet Brawl for a record 66th time on Saturday, September 12, and the margin made the result feel almost routine for him and staggering…
Mexico and Canada Led North America's Chess Calendar in August 2026
August's tournament calendar in North America tracked 162 events across the continent, though only a portion of them came with reported player counts. Of…
Nakamura's 65th Bullet Brawl Win Is the Latest Chapter in a Two-Decade Bullet Reign
Hikaru Nakamura picked up his 65th career Bullet Brawl title on Saturday, his 16th of 2026 alone, scoring 51/65 for 170 points and finishing 23 points clear of…
Why Kasparov vs. Topalov in Chess960 Feels Like Unfinished Business
Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov are set to meet again, this time at the Saint Louis Chess Club for Clutch Chess: The Legends, a $144,000 Chess960 match…
The 'Curse of the Draw' Follows the Grand Chess Tour to St. Louis
Day one of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour Finals gave St. Louis exactly the kind of chess that makes commentators tear their hair out: two fights, two full points…
September 2026 in North American Chess: Mexico's Independencia Circuit Leads a Packed Calendar
North America's chess calendar for September 2026 runs to 117 tracked tournaments, and the biggest cluster by registration numbers belongs to a single…
Sindarov's Round-Seven Win Echoes His Candidates Surge as Tan Survives a Near-Collapse
The 2026 Sinquefield Cup and Cairns Cup are entering the stretch run in St. Louis, and round seven produced one decisive game in each event, plus a near-miss…