Drama to the Final Move: Wesley So and Rachael Li Claim U.S. Chess Championship Titles

SAINT LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 26, 2026--

The U.S. Chess Championships delivered a wild ride from start to finish, with high drama, hard-fought battles and championship dreams on the line in both divisions. In the Open, Grandmaster (GM) Fabiano Caruana and GM Wesley So battled their way into a playoff to decide the title, with So ultimately emerging as champion and taking home $56,000 – marking So’s fourth title. The U.S. Women’s Championship was equally action-packed, as 16-year-old rookie Woman International Master (WIM) Rachael Li of Plano, Texas, made a spectacular debut, claiming her first U.S. Women’s Championship title and $45,000 in prize money.

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Hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC), the 2026 U.S. Chess Championship events featured 24 of the top chess players who competed over the board from Oct. 9–22 for a total prize fund of more than $400,000.

“This year’s championships showcased the incredible strength and depth of American chess,” said Rex Sinquefield, co-founder of the Saint Louis Chess Club. “From Wesley So’s championship run to Rachael Li’s standout breakthrough, these events demonstrated the determination, talent and unpredictability that make chess so compelling. We are proud to bring the nation’s top players to Saint Louis and give fans the opportunity to experience these extraordinary moments.”

Wesley So Wins U.S. Chess Championship After Unforgettable Tournament

GM Wesley So of Excelsior, Minnesota, emerged as the 2026 U.S. Chess Champion after a tournament filled with unexpected twists and remarkable individual performances. So’s victory capped a championship in which even the tournament’s highest-ranked players faced formidable challenges from across the field.

The Open section produced two particularly striking upsets. In Round 5, bottom-seeded GM Andy Woodward defeated top-seeded GM Fabiano Caruana, ending Caruana’s 54-game unbeaten streak. Woodward went on to finish fifth outright, delivering one of the tournament’s strongest performances.

In Round 11, GM Sam Sevian, who entered the game in last place, defeated So, who was leading the standings at the time. The victory ended So’s 48-game unbeaten streak and was Sevian’s only win of the championship.

Despite the setback, So won a Rapid Chess playoff and finished the tournament as champion. Caruana placed second, while GMs Jeffery Xiong and Grigoriy Oparin tied for third. Woodward’s fifth-place finish further underscored the depth and unpredictability of the field.

“I was disappointed with yesterday’s loss, but I’m very happy today. Shoutout to Fabiano — he’s a great teammate. We were both really tired today and ready to finish the tournament. Now I’m looking forward to reviewing my game and continuing to improve. I also want to thank the broadcast team for doing such a great job every day,” said So.

2026 U.S. Chess Championship Final Results

* Includes Finish Strong Prize

Rachael Li Wins First U.S. Women’s Championship Title

Sixteen-year-old rookie Woman International Master (WIM) Rachael Li of Plano, Texas has claimed her first U.S. Women’s Championship, earned $45,000 (including the Winner’s Bonus and Finish Strong Prize) and gained 50 rating points as she beat an impressive field of America’s top female players. She is the second youngest female player to capture the title. International Master (IM) Alice Lee of North Oaks, MN, finished in second, earning $30,000 and advanced her into the U.S. Women’s No. 1 position. GM Irina Krush of Brooklyn, NY, finished in third, earning $20,000.

“I feel really relieved right now. It wasn’t easy, and I didn’t sleep well, but I’m really happy. I couldn’t have imagined this happening. I’m very thankful to my brother, Grandmaster Ruifeng Li, who helped me prepare, and to my parents, who have always supported me,” said Li. “I’d also like to thank the Sinquefields for hosting this event. I hope to be back playing next year. This has been a great opportunity, and I’ll keep pushing forward in chess. This is a great motivation for me.”

2026 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship Final Results

* Includes Finish Strong Prize

In addition, the top five finishers in the open division and the top two finishers in the women’s field have all qualified for the FIDE World Cup 2027.

Recaps and full tournament coverage featuring play-by-play commentary and analysis from world-renowned commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Maurice Ashley and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Katerina Nemcova of the 2026 U.S. Championships are available at the STLCC’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels.

Chess Legends Honored in U.S. and World Chess Halls of Fame

October in Saint Louis celebrated excellence on and off the chessboard, crowning new national champions and honoring chess legends through the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame and World Chess Hall of Fame. The U.S. Chess Hall of Fame inducted Montgomery Major and IM Jeremy Silman, while the World Chess Hall of Fame inducted GM Boris Gelfand during the Oct. 8 opening ceremony of the 2026 U.S. and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships.

Four additional World Chess Hall of Fame inductees — GM Ulf Andersson, IM Nana Ioseliani, GM Vasyl Ivanchuk and GM Alexandra Kosteniuk — will be honored during the closing ceremony of the 2026 Saint Louis Chess Conference on Oct. 24. Together, the seven inductees represent generations of chess excellence and lasting contributions to the game in the United States and around the world.

October Championships Bookended by Legendary Clutch Chess Event

The month concludes with Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown running Oct. 27-29, featuring World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, five-time U.S. Champion Fabiano Caruana, 2026 Grand Chess Tour champion Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and 2026 Candidates Tournament winner and World Champion Challenger Javokhir Sindarov. The players will face off in an 18-game rapid double round-robin competition for $425,000 in prizes, including daily win bonuses and a Champion’s Jackpot.

Fans can watch online via the Saint Louis Chess Club’sYouTube and Twitch channels, with commentary from sports broadcaster James Dash Patterson and GMs Yasser Seirawan Maurice Ashley. Spectators will be allowed with the purchase of a ticket. Tournament tickets are $50 per day or $150 for all three days; VIP tickets are $100 per day or $275 for all three days. An autograph-session-only ticket is $100. Visit the website for full ticket details and information

Visit saintlouischessclub.org or follow the Saint Louis Chess Club social channels for event and ticket details.

About the Saint Louis Chess Club

The Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to making chess a vital part of the community and advancing Saint Louis’s reputation as the nation’s premier chess destination—the U.S. Chess Capital. In addition to hosting world-class tournaments and providing a welcoming space for casual and competitive play, the Club offers a robust slate of educational programming, including beginner lessons, chess improvement classes, lectures, and special events for players of all ages and skill levels.

Recognizing the cognitive, academic, and social benefits of chess, the Saint Louis Chess Club is deeply committed to scholastic education. The Club supports existing chess programs in area schools while actively developing new in-school and after-school initiatives that introduce students to the game and help young players thrive both on and off the board. For more information, visit www.saintlouischessclub.org.

About the World Chess Hall of Fame & Galleries

The World Chess Hall of Fame & Galleries (WCHOF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to building awareness of the cultural and artistic significance of chess. It opened on September 9, 2011, in the Central West End after moving from previous locations in New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami. Housed in a historic 15,900-square-foot residence-turned-business in Saint Louis' Central West End neighborhood, the WCHOF features World Chess Hall of Fame inductees, United States Chess Hall of Fame inductees selected by the U.S. Chess Trust, artifacts from the permanent collection and exhibitions highlighting the great players, historic games and rich cultural history of chess. The WCHOF partners with the Saint Louis Chess Club to provide innovative programming and outreach to local, national and international audiences. For more information, visit worldchesshof.org and on social: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube channels.

Wesley So captured his fourth U.S. Chess Championship title after a dramatic playoff, while 16-year-old Rachael Li made a spectacular debut to win her first U.S. Women’s Chess Championship.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration illegally fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of ex-FBI Director and Trump critic James Comey, as a Justice Department prosecutor, a judge ruled Monday, sharply rebuking the administration’s authority to terminate career federal employees it dislikes.

The ruling is tailored to Maurene Comey but its import stretches beyond her case, repudiating the claim of President Donald Trump’s administration that the Constitution permits such firings for any reason. Administration officials have cited that belief repeatedly in a sweeping purge of the federal workforce.

Comey, an assistant U.S. attorney for a decade, was fired in July 2025 despite her work on some of the nation’s highest-profile cases and consistently receiving “the highest accolades from supervisors and peers alike,” Judge Jesse M. Furman found.

After her firing, Comey sued the Justice Department and others, saying her termination violated the constitutional separation of powers, the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

She asserted that she was fired because she was the daughter of James Comey, whom Trump has long viewed as an enemy, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both, the judge noted.

Furman rejected the government's claim that Comey could be fired because federal prosecutors exercise the president's “conclusive and preclusive” powers.

He also said the government's claim that Congress is barred from regulating the removal of federal prosecutors “flies in the face of nearly two centuries of Supreme Court precedent.”

Furman added: “Indeed, to accept Defendants’ argument would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.”

The firing violated the separation of powers, the Administrative Procedure Act and her Fifth Amendment due process and statutory rights, the judge ruled. He reserved judgment on Comey's First Amendment claim pending further arguments, though he said he was inclined to dismiss it because it was largely moot since she is now in private practice and no longer seeks actual reinstatement.

Furman, who was nominated to the bench in 2011 by then-Democratic President Barack Obama, granted Comey retroactive reinstatement and back pay from the date of her firing through Dec. 20 to “make her whole” and ensure that she doesn't suffer adverse employment consequences for the “unlawful termination.”

In a statement, the Justice Department said it “disagrees with this decision and will appeal in due course.”

Comey’s lawyers, Ellen Blain, Nicole Gueron, Deepa Vanamali and Margaret Donovan, lauded the ruling.

“This hard-earned victory belongs to Ms. Comey, to all civil servants, and to all fighting for the rule of law,” they said in a statement. “As the Court correctly held, to accept the government’s argument about unlimited executive power ‘would be to unsettle the very equilibrium established by this Nation’s constitutional system.’ This decision reaffirms our bedrock system of checks and balances: the President is not above the law.”

Comey was fired two weeks after leading the prosecution of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, which ended in a conviction on prostitution-related charges but an acquittal on others. She also worked on the sex trafficking prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who killed himself in jail a month after his arrest in 2019, and Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The Justice Department during the Trump administration has fired scores of career employees, including prosecutors and FBI agents, who participated in investigations of Trump or who were perceived as opposed to the administration’s agenda. Some of those firings have also resulted in federal lawsuits.

The firing of Maurene Comey was seen as particularly personal, given her father’s longtime adversarial relationship with Trump.

The president fired James Comey as FBI director in May 2017 as the bureau was investigating ties between Russia and the Republican’s successful 2016 campaign for the White House. Trump in the years since has repeatedly called for Comey to be jailed, and his Justice Department has worked with mixed success to make that happen.

An earlier criminal case accusing James Comey of having lied to Congress in 2020 was dismissed by a judge who concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. A separate pending indictment charges the former FBI director with threatening Trump through an Instagram photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47,” a case he has sought to dismiss that some legal experts have greeted with skepticism.

Tucker and Durkin reported from Washington.

In this photo taken with a smartphone former Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey and her husband Lucas Issacharoff leave a hearing in her lawsuit over her firing by the Justice Department at a Manhattan federal courthouse on Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Michael R. Sisak)

FILE - Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey is outside court during the Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial, June 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)