Selected games from this tournament can be viewed here:
https://www.goldchess.com/en/other/winnerslist.html#g0_wins
United States Championship Tournament – Saint Louis 2026
Round 6
Awonder Liang – Aronian 1-0
Misfortunes never come singly. A second consecutive loss—this likely puts an end to any hopes of a top finish in this tournament. We will show how Aronian should have played to win this game. Overall, there were no major upsets, though the competition remains fierce; the top four—Woodward, So, Caruana, and Liang—all have 4 points. In Aronian’s game, the position reached a point of resignation; naturally, one cannot win an endgame down a bishop. However, a few moves earlier—while he still had a knight—Aronian could have secured a draw. In total, across three variations of this game, we see 3 draws and 2 wins. We will present the 3 draws.
Round 6 – Women’s Section
Things are more interesting here. The leader, Alice Lee, suffered a defeat against Rachael Li. Only the second-placed player, Landeiro, remains undefeated.
Lee–Li 0-1. The final position is a rout—I wouldn’t have expected Lee to lose in such a fashion. White is left with only a rook, while Black has a rook and four pawns. 35.h4 was far too bold. We explored a different line, resulting in a draw that is quite pleasing—everything played with clockwork precision. We featured Aronian in the previous round; today, we will showcase this draw.
Round 5
A round of upsets. We predicted that Aronian would lose in the fifth round—we just didn’t know to whom. We certainly didn’t foresee that both Caruana and Niemann would also lose their games. Let us come to the rescue.
Aronian vs. Xiong: 0–1. Losing with the white pieces is always a bitter defeat. As it turns out, Xiong is a dangerous opponent; he previously defeated Liang when the latter was the tournament leader. He appears to be the “dark horse” of this event. After all, everyone has gaps in their chess education—no one can perfectly master every opening or memorize the 10 million games found in the ChessBase database. Everyone possesses a specific slice of chess knowledge, combined with their own natural talent, and they make the best of it. But back to the game: once Aronian embarked on a flawed plan (move 21. Nf5), things went downhill. He simply needed to recognize that the d6-pawn was the most critical asset for White and defend it—much like we would have done. We present one of the winning lines following 21. f3.
Woodward–Caruana 1–0
Depending on how the computer plays, the outcome is either a draw or a win. Caruana would likely have handled this with ease—provided, of course, that he had followed our line.
Robson–Niemann 1–0
A misunderstanding. There was no need to resign the game; the position was, in fact, a draw. We also don’t believe that Robson would have managed to play better and secure a win from that point.
Women’s Championship, Round 5
Nothing particularly extraordinary occurred. Lee won, strengthening her position as the leader, while Paragua also secured a victory, moving up to third place. Only three players remain undefeated: Lee, Landeiro (currently in second place), and Anna Zatonskih. Which of them will suffer a defeat in the sixth round?
Round 4
The upset of the round: Xiong, ranked 10th, defeated the leader, Liang, causing him to drop to third place. Caruana took the lead after winning his game against Robson, while So moved into second place following a draw with Aronian.
So, the result was Xiong 1–0 Liang, and this is the game we will focus on. The move 68.Kc5 was a brilliant game-ender; after Black captures the bishop with their knight, they are unable to prevent the a6-pawn from promoting to a queen. However, Liang could have secured a draw; our analysis confirms this in every possible variation. See.
Round 4, Women’s Section
The leader, Paragua, lost to Lee and dropped to third place, with Alice taking over the top spot—a dethroning. We won’t be analyzing that game, though; we are show draws in the game Liang lost.
Round 3
A drawn clash at the top: Liang vs. So. We examine whether either of them could have won and who held the better chances. We would have bet on Liang; the position is reminiscent of 19th-century games, and White possesses significant attacking potential. And indeed, there was a win available. We demonstrate a clever way to eliminate the white bishop—a move that decides the game’s outcome. Of course, it is impossible to know for certain if So would have opted for the easy pickings of two pawns, but in chess, nothing is guaranteed until the very end. This game will be featured in our tournament coverage, allowing everyone to see for themselves…
Women’s Round 3
Atwell vs. Landeiro: Draw
There was some shuffling of the standings in Round 3. Alice Lee held her spot in the top three by defeating Yu and moving up to second place. Following two draws, Paraqua climbed to first place, while Landeiro dropped to third. All three players have 2.5 points. We take a closer look at Landeiro’s draw, which cost her the lead. Could she have won against Atwell while playing Black? She could have—and in brilliant fashion, too.
Both players demonstrated incredible fighting spirit and a desire to win. They only agreed to a draw on the 74th move, although a draw was effectively already on the cards by move 31, following the exchange of queens. Overall, it was a double-edged game where both sides had winning chances; however, we focused specifically on Black’s opportunities. And we found a clear-cut win.
Round 2
In the second round, we have a game featuring Xiong, who was in the top three but has now lost to So. Xiong could have won this game; he just needed to play it properly. We applied our video analysis techniques and overanalysed White’s moves. We’ll show the game here after the tournament, when it will feature as a study.
Round 2, Women
Li, who had previously defeated Irina Krush, lost her game to Landeiro (the current leader).
Could Li have won or drawn? Let’s take a look. Checkmate on move 52, preceded by the loss of her queen.
Li was checkmated like a novice. In this game, we’ve had fun creating the moves. Winning it puts you in a good mood for the whole week. See how we did it.
Round 1
There were only three wins in the first round. Surprisingly, the players who lost their games were those who could have been in contention for the title: Shankland, Niemann and Sevian. And, interestingly, they all lost whilst playing black. However, the tournament isn’t over yet; we’ll see what happens next. We’re going to analyse these three games. And here’s a point to note: we’ve observed that nobody else in the world is doing this. Either other analysts are lazy, or ours are the best in the world. And I wouldn’t argue with that at all.
So-Sam Shankland 1–0. So didn’t win until move 80. Well, the pawn advantage wins the day here. The reason for the loss – a mistake on move 56. And here, too, a draw was within Black’s reach. And there we have it. He’s through to the next round.
Xiong–Sevian 1–0. The illusion of chess. And this isn’t at all about Xiong being a magician who cast a spell on Sevian. The win itself is the illusion. We’ve got a draw. And believe me, there couldn’t be a simpler draw in chess. Sevian simply didn’t ‘have his day’ in this game.
Liang–Niemann 1–0. Niemann was literally cornered and, to use boxing terminology, knocked out. None of the black pieces can escape. It’s worth noting here that Liang recently beat Nakamura 6–3 in a match. So he knows his chess. Will we manage to pull Hans out of the volcanic crater before it erupts? Probably yes. And if so, we’ll have not just a draw, but a win. We’ll show you the move now.
Only at our Chess Academy will you learn to play like this. Come and join us.
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Women
Round 1
Li-Krush 1–0
The most recognisable American female chess player lost to Li in Round 1. It was surprising, as she had formidable counter-attacking opportunities. White had only an active queen, whilst Black had a phalanx of pawns in the centre. But instead of capitalising on this, Irina made a completely hopeless 21st move, Ne5. That’s not how we teach chess at our Academy. We played in our own style, following our own concept, and secured the win, whilst at the same time producing one of the most beautiful games in Goldchess history – checkmate on move 37. In this game, White resigns on move 34, but we show how the game would have unfolded had they not resigned. A queen sacrifice leading to an inevitable checkmate. That’s how Krush could have played it.
Take a look at our little gem.
