21.10.26

Chess digest, Oct. 17–21: So and Li need one draw each, Budva's top boards fall, Ohanyan wins Atyrau | Chess World Digest

Chess digest, Oct. 17–21: So and Li need one draw each, Budva's top boards fall, Ohanyan wins Atyrau

Wesley So and 16-year-old Rachael Li carry a full-point lead into the last round of the U.S. Championships, three of the five highest-rated players in Budva lose on the same day, and Emin Ohanyan takes the Atyrau Masters on tiebreak.

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Coverage window: after 10:45 Sofia time on October 17 through 10:45 on October 21, 2026.

Wesley So and Rachael Li each lead the U.S. Championships by a full point with one round left, and a draw in Saint Louis today settles both titles. In Budva, three of the five highest-rated players in the European Club Cup lost in the same round. In Kazakhstan, the Atyrau Masters finished with two players on seven points and a tiebreak deciding first.

So needs one draw, and he has been taking them quickly

Both U.S. titles are 12-player round robins at the Saint Louis Chess Club, October 9 to 21, with rounds at 20:00 Sofia time. The open carries a $250,000 prize fund and $55,000 for first; the women's event has $152,000 and $35,000. 1

So has not lost a game. In round seven he was worse against Ray Robson and won anyway, in 92 moves, to take the sole lead on 5/7. 2

Round eight decided the margin. So beat Andy Woodward in a pawn endgame while Fabiano Caruana drew with Sam Sevian, and the lead became a full point. 3

Caruana's best chance came in round nine, with white against the leader. He chose the Dubov Gambit in the Italian, sacrificing material for development; So found a defensive plan and a novelty and the game simplified to a drawn rook endgame. Grigoriy Oparin beat Sam Shankland and joined Caruana on 5½/9. 4

So finished his game in under an hour. He drew Hans Niemann from a Nimzo-Indian that went straight into mass trades, and described his approach in the final rounds as "to remove games from the tournament". 5

Two games were decisive behind him. Shankland beat Sevian in a Poisoned Pawn Najdorf that swung both ways and ended with 35...Qg1??; Levon Aronian beat Robson in a queen endgame, the day his second Mikhail Antipov's child was born. Caruana tried the Scandinavian against Jeffery Xiong; both players finished at 99 accuracy and the game was drawn. 5

Standings after round ten, open section. Ratings are the invitational ratings published by the Saint Louis Chess Club. 1

Pos	Player	Rating	Score
1	Wesley So	2796	7
2	Fabiano Caruana	2831	6
2	Grigoriy Oparin	2683	6
4	Awonder Liang	2753	5½
4	Andy Woodward	2685	5½
4	Jeffery Xiong	2693	5½
7	Levon Aronian	2768	5
7	Abhimanyu Mishra	2686	5
9	Sam Shankland	2692	4½
10	Hans Niemann	2770	4
11	Ray Robson	2701	3½
12	Sam Sevian	2736	2½

So has black against Sevian in the last round. Caruana has white against Liang, and Oparin has black against Robson. A draw gives So his fourth U.S. title, after 2017, 2020 and 2021; only a So defeat combined with a Caruana or Oparin win would force a playoff on Thursday. 5 1

Caruana's bid for a fifth consecutive title, which would match Samuel Reshevsky's run from 1936 to 1942, is out of his hands. 4

Rachael Li at the board on the left and Wesley So on the right, in a split frame

The two leaders after round ten: Rachael Li, 16, and Wesley So, each a point clear going into the last round in Saint Louis. Both pictures were taken at the venue during the championship. Photos: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club, via Chess.com.

Li is a draw from a first title, and she is not showing nerves

Rachael Li is 16, from Texas, and playing her first U.S. Women's Championship. She leads on 8/10 with a first prize of $35,000 waiting. 5 4

Her week started quietly and kept improving. She beat Megan Paragua in round seven and drew Tatev Abrahamyan in round eight, while Alice Lee stayed level with a win over Rose Atwell and a draw with Anna Zatonskih. 2 3

Round nine was the swing. All six games were decisive. Li beat Nazi Paikidze in a knight endgame that was objectively drawn until Paikidze erred, and the win gave her a first international master norm. Irina Krush beat Lee after exchanging both rooks for a queen out of a Réti. 4

"I kind of don't really feel anything," Li said of the run-in. "I just feel like every game is just a game that I'm practicing for something." 5

Five of the six games in round ten were decisive. Li beat Atwell a piece up, even with her knight trapped on e7. Lee kept the race alive by sacrificing an exchange against Thalia Cervantes and winning after 36...Kh7??. 5

Tatev Abrahamyan produced the round's miniature, giving up a bishop, a knight and a rook to mate Zatonskih after a weakening pawn move. Anna Sargsyan beat Jennifer Yu in 26 moves from the Schara Gambit. 5

Standings after round ten, women's section. 1

Pos	Player	Rating	Score
1	Rachael Li	2382	8
2	Alice Lee	2465	7
3	Irina Krush	2440	6½
4	Thalia Cervantes	2311	5½
4	Megan Paragua	2295	5½
6	Tatev Abrahamyan	2417	4½
6	Jennifer Yu	2373	4½
8	Anna Zatonskih	2358	4
8	Anna Sargsyan	2404	4
8	Carissa Yip	2505	4
11	Rose Atwell	2427	3½
12	Nazi Paikidze	2336	3

Li plays Zatonskih in the last round and needs a draw. Lee needs to beat Sargsyan with black and to have Li lose. 5

Li has gained more than 50 rating points in Saint Louis, is performing near 2600 and stands 31st in the world on the live list. The defending champion, Carissa Yip, is on 4/10 and set to lose 29 points, though she has won her last two games. 5

In Budva, the top boards lost on the same afternoon

The 41st European Club Cup and 30th women's club cup run from October 17 to 23 in Budva, Montenegro: seven rounds, 108 teams in the open section and 22 in the women's, at 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes, with a 30-second increment from move one. 6

The first two rounds went to form. The favourites swept 6-0 while resting their stars, with one exception: Novy Bor's Nils Grandelius lost to Slobodan Filipovic, a Serbian candidate master. 7 Wei Yi, Arjun Erigaisi and Richard Rapport all reached 2/2. 8

Round three belonged to Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. The 15-year-old, the highest-rated player of his age in history, won a time-trouble fight on his club-cup debut and climbed to 15th in the world on the live list. 9

Round four corrected the picture. Erdogmus lost to Karthikeyan Murali, Anish Giri lost to Pranav Venkatesh, and the top-seeded Bayegan Pendik Chess Sports Club of Türkiye was held 3-3 by Elektroprivreda. 10

Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the highest-rated player in the tournament, lost to Aydin Suleymanli and slipped below Wesley So to sixth on the live list. SuperChess Romania still won the match 4-2, with Jorden van Foreest, Alexey Sarana and Daniel Dardha all scoring. 10

Four teams are perfect after four matches. Alkaloid, SuperChess Romania and Novy Bor were expected; SK K CERO INVEST Nitra, seeded 12th, are not. They beat Beer Sheva with Vasyl Ivanchuk winning on top board. 10

Standings after round four, open section. Match points decide the table, and teams level on match points are ordered by the organisers' tiebreak. 10

Pos	Seed	Team	Match points
1	2	Alkaloid	8
2	3	SuperChess Romania	8
3	4	Novy Bor	8
4	12	SK K CERO INVEST Nitra	8
5	1	Bayegan Pendik	7
6	5	Tuxera Aquaprofit Nagykanizsai	7
7	11	Aix-en-Provence	7
8	6	Elektroprivreda	7
9	13	Riehen	7
10	27	SK Dunajska Streda	7

Round five, today at 15:00 Sofia time, puts two perfect records against each other: Alkaloid against Novy Bor, with Arjun Erigaisi likely to meet Nodirbek Yakubboev on top board. SuperChess Romania play Nitra. 10

The women's club cup has a new leader

CE Gambit Bonnevoie, the fourth seeds from Luxembourg, ended Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo's run in round four. Elina Danielian beat Stavroula Tsolakidou for her fourth win in four rounds, and the match finished 2½-1½. 10

Monte-Carlo, the defending champions and the most successful team in the event's history, could have saved the match. Koneru Humpy let a winning position against Klaudia Kulon slip, and Pia Cramling could only draw with Aleksandra Maltsevskaya, who had the better of the chances at the end. 10

Bodhana Sivanandan, 11, is playing for She Plays To Win Lionesses A and looks less like a guest each round. She beat Olga Badelka with black in round three, then won an exchange against Nino Batsiashvili in round four and pressed for most of the game before Batsiashvili found the only escape. 11 10

Bodhana Sivanandan, right, playing Olga Badelka at the European Club Cup

Olga Badelka of Austria, left, against Bodhana Sivanandan of England in round three of the women's European Club Cup in Budva. Sivanandan, 11, won with black; her side, She Plays To Win Lionesses A, drew the match 2-2 with Gambit ASEE. Photo: Gerd Densing / ChessBase, via ChessBase.

Standings after round four, women's section. 10

Pos	Seed	Team	Match points
1	4	CE Gambit Bonnevoie	8
2	1	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	6
3	7	Crvena Zvezda	6
4	2	Sirmium Sremska Mitrovica	6
5	18	Velikova Chess Club	6
6	5	Odlar Yurdu	6

Five teams sit a match win behind. Velikova, seeded 18th, are the surprise among them, having drawn or beaten higher-rated teams in three of the four rounds. 10

Round five sends Sirmium, led by Polina Shuvalova, against Bonnevoie, and Monte-Carlo against Velikova. 10

Ohanyan wins Atyrau on tiebreak

The Atyrau Open Masters was the third stage of the Kazakhstan Chess Cup, a nine-round Swiss from October 12 to 20 with no draws allowed before move 30, a 15-minute broadcast delay and 9 million tenge, about $20,000, for first. 12

Emin Ohanyan of Armenia, rated 2520, and Jiang Haochen of China, rated 2490, both finished on 7/9. Ohanyan took first on the first tiebreak, 46 against 36.5. He performed at 2693, Jiang at 2585. 13

Baadur Jobava finished third on 6½, ahead of Ivan Zemlyanskii and Aldiyar Ansat on the same score. Artiom Stribuk, who had led at halfway, finished 11th on 6. 13

The top of the seed list never recovered from the opening rounds. Shamsiddin Vokhidov, the top seed at 2649, finished 32nd on 5½. Second seed Leon Luke Mendonca was 27th on the same score, Gata Kamsky 25th on 5½, and Arkadij Naiditsch 33rd on 5. 13

Online: Nakamura's week in two formats

Hikaru Nakamura won Titled Tuesday on October 20 with 9.5/11, his first win in the event since May. He started 7/7, lost to Alexey Sarana in round eight, then beat Alireza Firouzja in the last round with the clock running down. 14

Dmitry Andreikin and Sina Movahed also finished on 9½ and lost the tiebreak, which Nakamura won on 77.5 to 75.5 and 72.5. The first prize was $2,500. The perfect-score bounty, now $5,250, grows by $250 a week until someone takes it. 14

On October 17 Nakamura had already taken Bullet Brawl for the sixth straight time, with 190 points against Jose Martinez's 144, a 46-point margin. It was his 71st career win in the format and his 22nd in 23 events this year. 15

He finished ten points short of the 200-point mark. Faustino Oro was third on 139, Reza Mahdavi fourth on 137, and Anastasia Avramidou took the best women's prize. 15

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A perfect score at the NATO championship. Vahap Şanal won the 36th NATO Chess Championship in Jūrmala, Latvia, with 7/7, and Türkiye took the team title. Laura Unuk of Slovenia finished second overall and was the event's top woman; Germany's Robert Stein took bronze on tiebreak. The field was 148 military players from 18 NATO countries, and the blitz event went to the Dutch IM Mark Timmermans. 16
A single rating for all three formats. Total Chess has proposed combining classical, rapid and blitz ratings into one number, developed by the researcher Mehmet Mars Seven with Norway Chess. Magnus Carlsen tops the first ranking, ahead of Nakamura and Abdusattorov. The system is open for testing and public consultation before any revision. 17
Sindarov's corner for the title match. Javokhir Sindarov will have Nodirbek Abdusattorov among his seconds for the world championship match against Gukesh Dommaraju, which opens in Cologny on November 22 and starts play on November 24. 18
A chess book back on the New York Times list. Levy Rozman's How to Win at Chess, Next Level reached the New York Times bestseller list, and his two books in the series hold the top two places on Amazon's chess chart. 19

What to watch next

Date (Europe/Sofia)	Event and location	Checkpoint
October 21	U.S. and U.S. Women's Championships, Saint Louis	Final round at 20:00: So has black against Sevian, Li plays Zatonskih, and a draw settles either title. 1
October 22	U.S. Championships, Saint Louis	Playoff at 20:00 if either title is shared, followed by the closing ceremony. 1
October 21–23	European Club Cup, Budva	Rounds five to seven, round five today at 15:00; Alkaloid meet Novy Bor and SuperChess meet Nitra with perfect records on the line. 10
October 22–24	Online	3 0 Thursday on October 22, Freestyle Friday on October 23 at 18:00, Bullet Brawl on October 24 at 19:00. 15
October 27	Titled Tuesday, online	18:00; Nakamura leads the 2026-27 Champions Chess Tour standings. 14
November 7	The 100-0 Project: Daniil Dubov v Josh Smith, online	100 games of one-minute bullet; Dubov is guaranteed $10,000 and doubles it only by winning every game. 20
November 10–20	Total Chess World Championship Tour pilot, Budapest	A 24-player field in four groups of six, with Carlsen and Caruana among them. 21
November 22–December 13	Salesforce FIDE World Championship match, Cologny, Geneva	Gukesh Dommaraju defends against Javokhir Sindarov over a maximum of 14 games; opening ceremony November 22, first game November 24. 22