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2024 U.S. Championship: Caruana Wins 4th U.S. Championship Title

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2024 U.S. Championship: Caruana Wins 4th U.S. Championship Title

GM Fabiano Caruana successfully defended his title at the 2024 U.S. Chess Championship, notching a win over GM Sam Shankland in the final round to claim the $62,000 first prize and winner’s trophy. Caruana’s 7/10 performance gave him a 1.5-point buffer over six players tied for second.

As IM Carissa Yip had already confirmed victory in the women’s event, all eyes turned to the race between WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and IM Alice Lee for the second 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup ticket. A win for Tokhirjonova over WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and Lee’s draw with Yip means that the former secured the spot.

Action at the Saint Louis Chess Club will continue with the 2024 9LX Chess commencing on October 28. The event will feature Caruana, GM Garry Kasparov, GM Hikaru Nakamura, and more.

Final Standings: Championship


Final Standings: Women’s Championship

U.S. Championship

Round 11 Results: Championship

Caruana entered the final round in the box seat, needing only a draw with Shankland to guarantee himself equal or outright first.

Caruana studies Shankland’s body language before the game. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

As the pair played into a “sharp” line of the Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, the only player mathematically able to catch him, GM Awonder Liang had just thrown a wrench in the works with the audacious 1.a3!? (the Anderssen Opening), against GM Leinier Dominguez. 

The smiling assassin Liang strikes again. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

Notice Yip’s wry smile of approval for Liang’s opening move in the video below.

The “fun” opening move did not come as a surprise to Caruana, and he revealed that he “knew from the first move that he (Liang) is trying to win.” As an experienced campaigner himself, Caruana left nothing to chance and didn’t settle for a draw against Shankland, slowly outplaying him and eventually capitalizing on a move-42 mistake.

With this victory, Caruana confirmed his fourth U.S. title and his highest FIDE rating since 2021 (2805).

Caruana also indicated that he aims to become a five-time champion next year, a feat achieved by seven players since the tournament’s inception in 1891: Jackson Showalter, GMs Samuel Reshevsky, Bobby Fischer, Larry Evans, Walter Browne, Gata Kamsky, and Nakamura.

Caruana has come closer to dethroning Carlsen from the number-one spot than anyone, but he still has a way to go. Image: 2700chess.com.

Not long before Caruana claimed the top prize, Liang’s position against Dominguez deteriorated. Heartbreakingly for Liang, the difference between a loss and a draw was $18,333, due to a six-way tie for second.

Winnings aside, Liang should have gained many new fans in St. Louis after his exceptional performance along with entertaining moments such as his house of cards, tower of pieces, and impressions with the player who scored 10 draws in this year’s championship, GM Wesley So.

Caruana lauded Liang and said he was capable of cracking into the “top 20 or 30.” Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

The third decisive game of the round was GM Grigoriy Oparin-GM Levon Aronian, and it featured a daring queen sacrifice by the latter. After falling to Liang in round three, Aronian’s resilient effort that saw him win two games and draw the rest catapulted him into the second-place tie.

Five days is all the time that Caruana will have to rest on his laurels as he will return to the Saint Louis Chess Club to contest a 10-player Chess960 round-robin (Chess 9LX) boasting a $150,000 prize fund. The U.S. champion may find this tournament even more difficult to win as Kasparov and Nakamura stand in his way.

Carlsen humbly admits that he believes Kasparov is the GOAT of chess. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

U.S. Women’s Championship

Round 11 Results: Women’s

Yip, the 2024 U.S. Women’s Champion. Photo: Crystal Fuller/Saint Louis Chess Club.

With the women’s title wrapped up, Yip was happy to see Lee opt for the Petrov’s Defense, an opening with one of the highest draw rates in chess. Yip would later relay her shock at Lee’s choice: “I totally expected Alice (Lee) to play for a win, and as her friend I was a little disappointed she chose the Petrov for that. I sort of said, this unambitious opening is going to be punished with a draw.”

Yip was not wrong. The pair exchanged queens on move seven and spent just an hour at the board before agreeing to a draw and going to get ice cream. 

This revelation made Tokhirjonova’s situation crystal clear. If she could defeat Abrahamyan, she would surpass Lee’s score and book her ticket to the World Cup. An imbalanced French Defense was the perfect battleground for a three-result game between Tokhirjonova and Abrahamyan, and the middlegame quickly became messy.

If you could pick two players to procure decisive results in the last game, it’d be Yip and Tokhirjonova; both had 10 decisive games. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

The game was far from clean; however, when the dust settled it was Tokhirjonova who clinched the all-important win to move to 7.5/11.

FM Megan Lee was the only other player to win her final round game. Against FM Rose Atwell, she uncorked a brilliant rook sacrifice in the late middlegame. The surprise of the women’s event finished in fourth place on 6.5/11 and gained 40 rating points for her efforts.

After Fischer’s extraordinary performance at the Championship 60 years ago, an 11/11 score has never been repeated. Many say it’s an impossible goal in a modern round-robin; however, with the number of decisive games in this year’s women’s championship, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that a future contender could replicate the feat.

Will Yip be the first player to equal the 1964 score? Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.

How to watch?

The 2024 U.S. Chess Championship was an invitational classical event that determined the chess champion of the United States. The 2024 U.S. Women’s Championship was held concurrently. Both events started on October 11 and had the same format: a 12-player, 11-round tournament with a $250,000 prize fund for the U.S. Championship, and $152,000 for the U.S. Women’s Championship.

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