The first day of the US Chess Championships 2026 in Saint Louis has concluded. After 1 round, three players share the lead with 1 point each, with Wesley So leading on tiebreaks.

Wesley So defeated Sam Shankland in 80 moves. Wesley made a critical Blunder on move 38 and lost a significant advantage. Shankland missed the opportunity and made a Mistake on the next move. Sam made a second Mistake on move 64 and lost a significant advantage.

The current standings are:

Place Player Score
1. 🇺🇸 GM Wesley So 1
2. 🇺🇸 GM Jeffery Xiong 1
3. 🇺🇸 GM Awonder Liang 1
4. 🇺🇸 GM Ray Robson 0.5
5. 🇺🇸 GM Fabiano Caruana 0.5
6. 🇺🇸 GM Levon Aronian 0.5
7. 🇺🇸 GM Grigoriy Oparin 0.5
8. 🇺🇸 GM Abhimanyu Mishra 0.5
9. 🇺🇸 GM Andy Woodward 0.5
10. 🇺🇸 GM Sam Shankland 0
11. 🇺🇸 GM Sam Sevian 0
12. 🇺🇸 GM Hans Moke Niemann 0

Individual round results:

Levon Aronian 0.5-0.5 Fabiano Caruana

Abhimanyu Mishra 0.5-0.5 Ray Robson

Wesley So 1-0 Sam Shankland

Jeffery Xiong 1-0 Sam Sevian

Awonder Liang 1-0 Hans Moke Niemann

Grigoriy Oparin 0.5-0.5 Andy Woodward

The US Chess Championships 2026 takes place from October 9 to 21, at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, USA. The event features a 90+30 time control for the first 40 moves and 30+30 for the rest of the game over one Round-Robin between 12 players.

Credit: Lennart Ootes