US Chess Championship

US Chess Championship 2026 dates

Dates

9 to 21 October 2026, playoff on 22 October if needed

Venue

Saint Louis Chess Club, Saint Louis, Missouri

Events

US Championship and US Women's Championship

Format

12-player round robin, 11 rounds, classical games

Round start

12:00 CT, 10:30 PM IST

Rest days

13 and 18 October

Prize funds

250,000 US dollars and 152,000 US dollars

Defending champions

Fabiano Caruana, Carissa Yip

The Saint Louis Chess Club published the 2026 dates on 3 June 2026. Both events play on the same days. The players arrive on 7 October, and the opening ceremony, with the US Chess Hall of Fame inductions, is on 8 October at the Missouri Athletic Club. Round 1 is on Friday 9 October and round 11 on Wednesday 21 October.

The 2026 regulations list each round from 12:00 to 5:00 PM, which is 10:30 PM to 3:30 AM the next morning in India. If players tie for first place, the playoff is on 22 October, the day of the closing ceremony at the Royal Sonesta Chase Park Plaza. The players leave on 23 October.

The US Chess national events calendar lists the championships as 10 to 24 October 2026. This page follows the schedule of the organiser, which has round 1 on 9 October.

The championships have started in October every year since 2022, but the dates are announced at different times of the year. The club announced the 2022 dates on 26 April 2022, the 2023 dates on 12 January 2023 and the 2026 dates on 3 June 2026. The players are named later, between 1 and 5 weeks before round 1: the 2023 fields came out on 21 September 2023, and the 2026 fields on 17 September 2026.

If 2027 follows this pattern, the 2027 dates will come out in the first half of the year and the players in September.

US Chess Championship 2026 players

The club named both fields on 17 September 2026. Fabiano Caruana is the top seed of the US Championship as the 2025 champion. Nine players qualified on rating, Abhimanyu Mishra has the wildcard, Andy Woodward qualified by winning the 2026 US Junior Championship in Saint Louis in July, and Grigoriy Oparin qualified as the 2026 US Open champion.

Eleven of the 12 players also played in 2025. Jeffery Xiong is back after missing 2025, and Dariusz Swiercz is not in the field. Hikaru Nakamura, a five-time US champion, is not in it either; he also did not play in 2025.

Abhimanyu Mishra, an Indian American from New Jersey, became the youngest grandmaster in history in 2021. He tied for 11th place in the 2025 US Championship with 4/11. In September 2026 he played the Prodigy board for the PBG Alaskan Knights in the Global Chess League; his season is on his Global Chess League player page.

US Women's Chess Championship 2026

Carissa Yip is the top seed of the US Women's Championship as the 2025 champion. Ten players qualified on rating, and Megan Paragua has the wildcard. The US Chess rules also give a place to the US Junior Girls' champion, but the 2026 list names no player with that route and does not say why.

Eleven of the 12 players also played in 2025. Rachael Li did not play in 2025, and Atousa Pourkashiyan, who did, is not in the 2026 field. Irina Krush, the 2022 champion, is the third seed. Yip played for the CheQ Mumba Masters in the 2026 Global Chess League, next to Harika Dronavalli; her season is on her Global Chess League player page.

How the US Chess Championship works

The US Championship decides the national chess champions of the United States, and the organiser says it was first held in 1845. US Chess, the national federation, sets the rules for who can play, and the Saint Louis Chess Club runs the event. The club has hosted every edition since 2009; the 2020 editions were played online.

Each event is a round robin of 12 players: every player meets every other player once, which makes 11 rounds. A win scores 1 point and a draw half a point. The 2026 regulations give each player 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added for each move from move 1.

Players cannot offer a draw before Black's 60th move. A draw by threefold repetition before that point must be checked by an arbiter. A player who is not at the board when the round starts can be fined 1,000 US dollars, and a player more than 10 minutes late loses the game.

A tie for first place goes to a playoff on 22 October. The tied players play rapid round robins at 15 minutes plus 10 seconds a move, or a 2-game match if only two players are tied. If they are still level, blitz round robins at 5 minutes plus 2 seconds follow. After 2 rapid and 2 blitz round robins, the chief arbiter can choose another way to break the tie after talking to the players. Tied players share the prize money of their places; the playoff decides only the title and the winner's bonus.

The 2026 prize funds are 250,000 US dollars for the US Championship and 152,000 US dollars for the US Women's Championship. The winners get 55,000 and 35,000 US dollars, plus a winner's bonus of 7,000 and 5,000. The regulations list two more bonuses. The Fischer bonus pays from 1,000 to 64,000 US dollars to a player who wins 5 to 11 games in a row from round 1, and the Finish Strong prize pays 5,000 US dollars for the highest score from round 6 to the end.

The US Chess invitation rules give automatic places to the defending champion of each event, to the US Open and US Junior champions in the US Championship, and to the US Junior Girls' champion in the women's event. The rest of each field comes from the US Chess invitational rating list and organiser wildcards. Players must be US Chess members and play for the USA at FIDE, and players who are not US citizens must meet residency rules.

The two champions also get places on the US teams for the Chess Olympiad. In even years, like 2026, the championships are the USA zonal: the results qualify players for the next stage of the world championship cycle, the FIDE World Cup. The US Chess rules do not say how many US places the 2027 World Cups will have, and we found no other source for the number by 25 September 2026.

US Chess Championship 2025 final standings

Fabiano Caruana won the 2025 US Chess Championship with 8/11, half a point ahead of Wesley So, so no playoff was needed. It was his fifth US title and his fourth in a row. The 2025 edition ran from 12 to 24 October at the Saint Louis Chess Club, with the same format as 2026.

Caruana led So by half a point before the last round. Then Caruana drew with Levon Aronian and So drew with Grigoriy Oparin, so the lead held. The organiser says Caruana took home 67,000 US dollars, bonuses included. Aronian finished third with 6.5 points; in September 2026 he played for the Ganges Grandmasters in the Global Chess League.

US Women's Chess Championship 2025 final standings

Carissa Yip won the 2025 US Women's Chess Championship with 8/11, half a point ahead of Anna Sargsyan, so there was no playoff. It was her fourth title and her third in a row. The organiser says she earned 45,000 US dollars.

Yip lost to Atousa Pourkashiyan in round 1. She beat Thalia Cervantes in the last round, and Sargsyan beat Alice Lee to take clear second place.

US Chess Championship winners since 2009

The Saint Louis Chess Club has hosted every edition since 2009. In that time, Caruana has won 5 titles, Gata Kamsky and Hikaru Nakamura 4 each, and Wesley So 3. In the women's event, Irina Krush has won 7 titles and Carissa Yip 4.

Bobby Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky share the record of 8 US titles, according to a list of US champions. The same list shows that the title is older than the tournament: before 1936, it passed through congresses and challenge matches. Fischer won his first title at 14, and his 11/11 in 1963-64 is still the only perfect score in the event. The Fischer bonus of the 2026 regulations is named after that result.

Irina Krush won her first women's title at 14. A list of US women's champions counts 9 titles for her, the same as Gisela Kahn Gresser, but the organiser calls Krush an eight-time champion.

How to watch the US Chess Championship

The Saint Louis Chess Club streams every round live on its YouTube and Twitch channels. The broadcast starts at 12:20 PM Central Time, 10:50 PM IST, with commentary from Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and Katerina Nemcova.

In India, the games run through the night. The schedule lists each round until 5:00 PM Central Time, which is 3:30 AM IST. There are no games on the rest days, 13 and 18 October.

In Saint Louis, daily tickets cost 25 US dollars, or 10 US dollars for annual club members, and give access to the playing hall and the spectator lounge. The club is at 4663 Maryland Avenue, and its visitor page has the details for a visit.

US Chess Championship FAQ

Facts on this page were checked on 25 September 2026 against the Saint Louis Chess Club's 2026 event page, its press release of 17 September 2026 and the 2026 regulations, the US Chess invitation rules, reports from US Chess, FIDE and Chess.com, and the Liquipedia pages for the 2025 US Championship and the 2025 US Women's Championship, which give the full scores.