3/15/2024 – The first players to be eliminated in the open section of the American Cup were Grigoriy Oparin and Sam Shankland. Oparin was defeated by Sam Sevian, while Shankland played no fewer than eight games before being knocked out by Leinier Dominguez. In the women’s section, Anna Zatonskih and Tatev Abrahamyan were eliminated by Zoey Tang and Jennifer Yu respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/21/2022 – Jennifer Yu defeated Irina Krush in a rapid and blitz playoff to claim her second U.S. women’s title. The contenders traded wins with white in the 2-game mini-match and decided the championship in an Armageddon encounter. Yu blundered a piece on move 9, but kept on fighting and ended up flagging her renowned opponent. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/20/2022 – Fabiano Caruana won the 2022 U.S. Championship with an undefeated +4 score after drawing Levon Aronian in the final round of the tournament in Saint Louis. Ray Robson finished in clear second place, while Leinier Dominguez and Awonder Liang shared the third spot in the standings. In the women’s event, Irina Krush and Jennifer Yu will play a tiebreaker for the title. | Photo: Bryan Adams

10/18/2022 – Nine out of fourteen games finished decisively in round 11 of the U.S. Championships. In the open, Fabiano Caruana continues to lead, with Ray Robson a half point back, while Leinier Dominguez and Sam Sevian both won to climb to shared third place. In the women’s event, Jennifer Yu leads Irina Krush by a half point after both contenders for first place won their games with the black pieces. Yu will have white against Krush in their round-12 direct encounter. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/15/2022 – After nine rounds, Fabiano Caruana and Jennifer Yu are the sole leaders at the U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship, respectively. Caruana drew with Awonder Liang after the latter continued the trend of playing offbeat openings in Saint Louis, while Jennifer Yu defeated Ashritha Eswaran in what was her sixth victory of the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/10/2022 – Fabiano Caruana and Jennifer Yu are the sole leaders in the U.S. Championships going into the first rest day of the 13-round event. In round 5, Caruana drew birthday boy Wesley So with the white pieces, while Yu defeated Sabina Foisor with black in what was her fifth consecutive decisive game of the tournament. | Photo: Bryan Adams

10/9/2022 – The two top seeds in the U.S. Championship won in Saturday’s round 4. Wesley So bounced back from a loss by beating Sam Shankland, while Fabiano Caruana became the first sole leader of the event after taking down Hans Niemann. Aleksandr Lenderman also scored a full point, as he defeated Christopher Yoo. In the women’s event, Jennifer Yu and Tatev Abrahamyan grabbed wins to join Alice Lee in the lead. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

10/7/2022 – The two players who kicked off the U.S. Championship with losses bounced back immediately by winning their round-2 games in Saint Louis. Elshan Moradiabadi defeated Awonder Liang, while Christopher Yoo got the biggest win of his young career as he took down Wesley So with the black pieces. Meanwhile, in the women’s event, three players still have a perfect score — Jennifer Yu, Alice Lee and Megan Lee. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/6/2022 – Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian kicked off the U.S. Championship with wins, as they defeated Christopher Yoo and Elshan Moradiabadi in the first round of the 14-player event. True to his style, Niemann was laconic in the post-game interview, noting that “chess spoke for itself” and that the game was so beautiful he did not even need to describe it. In the women’s event, four players scored full points, including Alice Lee, who is playing her first national championship. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

7/19/2022 – The national junior and senior chess championships have concluded in Saint Louis, with 15-year-old GM Christopher Yoo taking home the 2022 U.S. Junior Championship, 20-year-old FM/WGM Jennifer Yu winning the 2022 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, and U.S. Chess Hall-of-Famer GM Alex Shabalov beating out a field that included five other hall-of-fame inductees to become the 2022 U.S. Senior Champion. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

8/29/2019 – After an initial article about FM and WGM Jennifer Yu’s ½ of 9 performance at the 2019 U.S. Junior Championship, a first follow-up article explored stereotype threat in chess, with the help of Dr. Andrei Cimpian and WFM Sarah Chiang. In this second follow-up article, WIM ALEXEY ROOT asks whether “stereotype threat” is debunked, with comments from Dr. Kenneth Regan and an interview with Yu herself. | Photos: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/21/2019 – In Alexey Root’s first article about FM and WGM Jennifer Yu’s ½ of 9 score in the U.S. Junior Championship, Root speculated about whether research on “stereotype threat” and on the difficulty of second-half “comebacks” could apply to Yu’s performance, which was around 2½ points less than her expected score. In this first follow-up article, WIM ALEXEY ROOT explores stereotype threat in chess. | Pictured: (clockwise from left) Annie Wang, Sarah Chiang, Jennifer Yu | Photos: USChessChamps.com

7/21/2019 – The 2019 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Jennifer Yu was the wildcard invite for the U.S. Junior Championship which concluded on Saturday, July 20th. She finished last in the 10-player round robin with ½ out of 9. In her post-tournament interview, Jennifer Yu mentioned, “Maybe there is a little more pressure or something.” In this article, WIM ALEXEY ROOT looks at two research-based reasons for the pressure Yu perceived and its possible effects on her result. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

4/3/2019 – April ratings came out like clockwork on Sunday night. Our own internal PlayerBase update — not so much. Apologies for the delay in our monthly tour through the Elo lists. Of special interest on the April list: 28 players from the Top 100 exhibited rating swings of +/- 10 Elo points or more — a rare occurrence. Pictured: Ju Wenjun, David Anton Guijarro, Jan Krejci, winners at the Prague Challengers. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

3/31/2019 – The astounding run of Jennifer Yu continued on Saturday, when she took down the one other contender for first place to get the title in style with a round to spare. The 17-year-old defeated Anna Zatonskih and stands on an unreachable 9 out of 10 score. Meanwhile, in the Open, Fabiano Caruana caught up with Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez in the lead thanks to a win over Aleksandr Lenderman. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/30/2019 – Only three out of twelve games finished drawn in Friday's ninth round at the US Championships in Saint Louis. In the Open, those on top maintained their winning ways, with Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez still sharing the lead. Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So also won and are the only ones with realistic chances of leaping to the front in the final sprint. In the Women's, Anna Zatonskih is a half point behind her round ten rival, Jennifer Yu. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/29/2019 – Leinier Dominguez, playing in his first U.S. Championship, is now co-leader with Hikaru Nakamura. He took a small endgame plus and converted it to a full point against Sam Sevian in round eight. Nakamura and Dominguez are scheduled to play in Saturday's tenth round. Fabiano Caruana remains a half point back. In the Women's tournament Jennifer Yu extends to her lead to a full point after winning her third game in a row. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/28/2019 – All four decisive results of round seven had a direct impact on the top of the standings at the US Championship. Wins by Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez and Sam Sevian allowed them to remain half a point behind sole leader Hikaru Nakamura, who also won on Wednesday. Meanwhile, among the women, for a second day in a row Jennifer Yu survived a losing position and went on to win to stay on top with 6½ out of 7. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/26/2019 – With a win over Timur Gareyev, Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) took sole lead in the US championship heading into the tournament's only rest day. But Fabiano Caruana is a mere half point behind after he scored his first full point in a classical game since October. Jennifer Yu leads the women's championship but yesterday she got a little help from Caissa the chess goddess. Despite her impressive 5½/6 score, she's also only a half point ahead, as Anna Zatonskih also won. | Photo: Justin Kellar

3/24/2019 – Round four of the US Championships was filled with peculiar episodes that made for an incredible day of chess in Saint Louis. Ray Robson took down sole leader Jeffery Xiong with the black pieces, while Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian were not able to make the most of completely winning positions against Leinier Dominguez and Timur Gareyev. In the women's section, Jennifer Yu remains perfect after her opponent blundered on move ten. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/23/2019 – The main attraction of the third round was Jeffery Xiong's win over defending champion Sam Shankland at the US Championships in Saint Louis. The 18-year-old not only claimed a big scalp but also got his name on top of the standings after a dream start. Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez also won and are now a half point behind him, together with Wesley So. In the Women's, Jennifer Yu took down Irina Krush to keep a perfect score. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

7/23/2018 – Saint Louis hosted the 2018 editions of the U.S. Junior Chess Championship and the U.S. Girls Junior Championship last week. Awonder Liang and Carissa Yip qualified to the national main event by winning in each category. This was Liang's second consecutive win in this event, while Yip improved greatly on her eighth place from last year. | Photos: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

7/17/2018 – The United States have become a chess epicentre thanks to the Sinquefield family and the club they created in Saint Louis. It seems like, if they continue to support the younger generations, American chess players have a bright future ahead. This year's U.S. Junior and U.S. Girls Junior Championships are taking place in Missouri's cultural centre, and have clear leaders after five rounds: Advait Patel in the open section and Carissa Yip in the girls section. | Photos: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/14/2015 – This event was staged in the multicultural city of Kitchener, Canada from July 26 to 30, and attracted 65 players from around North America to compete in the open section and girls section. Neither of the top seeds placed with a medal. One of them, Qiyu Zhou, sent us a lovely report. We dug into her background and pulled up some inspiring material that left us speechless. | Photos: John Upper and Penny Yu