Sam Shankland wins American Continental Championship

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
6/3/2025 – Sam Shankland won the 2025 American Continental Chess Championship in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, after finishing in a seven-way tie for first place and prevailing on the Buchholz tiebreak criterion. The event, held from 23 to 31 May, awarded four places for the 2025 FIDE World Cup. José Eduardo Martínez and Alexandr Fier joined Shankland on the podium, while José Gabriel Cardoso secured the final qualification spot. | Photo: FIDE Americas
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Shankland, Martínez and Fier on the podium

The 2025 American Continental Chess Championship concluded on 31 May in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, with Sam Shankland of the United States taking first place on tiebreaks after a tightly contested event. Shankland emerged as the champion from a seven-way tie for first, edging out his rivals on the Buchholz system to secure the title.

Held from 23 to 31 May, the championship featured an 11-round Swiss tournament played with classical time controls. A total of 218 players from 17 countries participated, including 21 grandmasters. The tournament offered a prestigious continental title and awarded four qualification spots for the FIDE World Cup, set to take place in October.

Heading into the final round, Shankland, the tournament's top seed, was tied in the lead on 8/10 with José Eduardo Martínez (Peru), Alexandr Fier (Brazil) and Luis Paulo Supi (Brazil). They were closely followed by eight players on 7½ points, making for a tense and competitive finish. With the top boards ending in draws, wins by Cristóbal Henríquez (Chile), Santiago Ávila (Colombia) and José Gabriel Cardoso (Colombia) allowed them to join the leading group with 8½ points in the tournament table.

Tiebreaks determined the final standings. Shankland claimed gold, followed by Martínez and Fier taking silver and bronze respectively. José Gabriel Cardoso secured the final qualification spot for the World Cup, narrowly ahead of Cristóbal Henríquez on the first tiebreak criterion.

Shankland shared the following post on X referring to his round-four win over GM Robert Hungaski - in which he used a closeted-psychopath approach as per his own words!

Shankland 1-0 Filgueiras (round six)

American Continental Chess Championship 2025

The playing hall

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Shankland, Sam 8,5 76,5
2 Martinez Alcantara, Jose 8,5 76
3 Fier, Alexandr 8,5 75
4 Cardoso Cardoso, Jose Gabriel 8,5 74,5
5 Henriquez Villagra, Cristobal 8,5 72,5
6 Supi, Luis Paulo 8,5 71,5
7 Avila Pavas, Santiago 8,5 70,5
8 Bachmann, Axel 8 75
9 Rojas Salas, Steven 8 74,5
10 Oparin, Grigoriy 8 73,5
11 Jacobson, Brandon 8 71,5
12 Villanueva, Mario 8 70,5
13 Hardaway, Brewington 8 68
14 Quesada Perez, Luis Ernesto 7,5 75,5
15 Hong, Andrew 7,5 74
16 Schnaider, Ilan 7,5 72
17 Di Berardino, Diego Rafael 7,5 70
18 Shabalov, Alexander 7,5 69,5
19 Lima, Darcy 7,5 69
20 Mareco, Sandro 7,5 68,5
21 Liascovich, Lucas 7,5 67,5
22 Ticona Rocabado, Licael 7,5 67,5
23 Panjwani, Raja 7,5 65
24 Hungaski, Robert 7 71
25 Coro, Lucas 7 70,5

...224 players

All available games

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.