Lee obtains fine victory over Abrahamyan

The defending champion of the women's section, Alice Lee, has strengthened her position as the clear favourite to win the Champions Bracket of the 2025 American Cup. The 15-year-old secured a crucial victory against Tatev Abrahamyan in the first classical game of their match.

Demonstrating remarkable strategic insight, Lee outplayed her opponent out of a King's Indian Defence, finding key manoeuvres that gradually increased her advantage. She concluded the game in style, leaving Abrahamyan unable to recover (see analysis of the game below). A draw in the second game on Thursday will be enough for Lee to secure a place in the Grand Final, where she will face the winner of the Elimination Bracket.

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Meanwhile, the Elimination Bracket saw two players being knocked out of the competition. Irina Krush prevailed over long-time US Women's Championship rival Anna Zatonskih with a 3-1 score, eliminating her from contention. In the other match of the day, Nazi Paikidze managed to eliminate top seed Carissa Yip, the reigning US women's champion.

With the tournament progressing towards its final stages, all eyes will be on Lee's second game against Abrahamyan, as well as the upcoming decisive encounters in the Elimination Bracket, which will determine who earns a chance to challenge for the title.

Irina Krush knocked out Anna Zatonskih | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Nazi Paikidze scored a convincing 2-0 victory over Carissa Yip | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Lee 1 - 0 Abrahamyan

Lee, Alice2386

1–0

Abrahamyan, Tatev2310

American Cup Women Champions 2025 Saint Louis19.03.2025[CC]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 Na6 7.0-0 e5 8.Be3 Qe7 9.Qc2 Nb4 10.Qd2 c5 11.d5 Ng4 12.Bg5 f6 13.Bh4 Nh6 14.a3 Na6 This whole line out of a quite orthodox King's Indian Defence had been played in the past. Lee, who later confessed to have been surprised by this opening, had a 20-minute disadvantage on the clock at this point. 15.Ng5

The 15-year-old spent 12 minutes before playing this move, which is a novelty and is approved by the engines. Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan reached this position at the 2021 Tata Steel Rapid tournament in Kolkata. There followed: 15.Rab1 Nf7 16.Ne1 Bh6 17.Qd1 Bg5 18.Bg3 f5 19.exf5 Bxf5 20.Nc2 Rae8 21.Re1 h5 22.f3 Bh4 23.Bxh4 Qxh4 24.Bd3 and the game eventually ended in a draw. 15...Qe8 Of course not 15...fxg5 and White ends up a pawn to the good after 16.Bxg5 Qf7 17.Bxh6 Bxh6 18.Qxh6 16.Ne6 The most principled continuation, giving up a pawn for activity. This is an oft-seen recourse in the King's Indian Defence. Bxe6 17.dxe6 Qxe6 18.Rfd1 Nf7 19.Nd5 Nd8 20.b4 Qf7 21.b5 Nb8 An awful-looking move, and not the best continuation. Abrahamyan understandably rejected 21...Nc7 22.Nxc7 Qxc7 23.Qxd6 which looks really bad from a positional point of view. This was the lesser evil, still. 22.Ne3 Nd7 23.Qxd6 Nb6 24.a4 Ne6 25.Bg4

White controls the open file and has a strong initiative. 25...Rfe8 Not 25...Nd4 due to 26.Rxd4 cxd4 27.Be6 26.a5 Bf8 27.Qd2 Rad8 28.Bxe6 Lee calculates precisely and finds the most accurate way to break through. Given Black's positional issues, Abrahamyan had used more time in the middlegame - she now had 6 minutes to Lee's 23. Qxe6 29.Qe2 This move is correct and natural, though capturing with the queen on d8 was even stronger. 29.Qxd8 Rxd8 30.Rxd8 Nxc4 31.a6 b6 32.Nd5 g5 33.Rd7 A difficult move to foresee - Black cannot capture the rook due to the fork on f6, while the idea is to grab the pawn on a7 and win with the passer on the queenside. Incredibly, Black cannot create counterplay despite having the queen. gxh4 33...Qxd7 34.Nxf6+ Kf7 35.Nxd7 gxh4 with a winning endgame for White. 34.Rxa7 and the a-pawn wins the day. 29...Nd7 30.a6 b6 31.Rd5 Be7 32.Rad1 Nf8 33.Qf3 Kg7 34.Ng4 Rc8 The final mistake, allowing a beatiful tactical shot. Better is 34...Rxd5 though White is still strategically much better after 35.cxd5 Qd6 36.Qe2 35.Rd6

Boom! A remarkable find by Lee. 35...Qf7 35...Bxd6 fails to 36.Bxf6+ Kg8 36...Kf7 37.Nh6# 37.Nh6# 36.Rxf6 What a couple of killer moves by the rook! Qxc4 37.Nxe5 Attacking the queen and threatening Rf7+. Game over. 1–0

King's Indian Attack - Simple. Flexible. Dynamic.

The King‘s Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible, and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities.

Alice Lee and Tatev Abrahamyan | Photo: Lennart Ootes

All games - Women's (champions bracket)

All games - Women's (elimination bracket)

Caruana and Nakamura sign quick draw

The final of the Champions Bracket in the open section began with a quiet encounter, as Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura quickly agreed to a draw in their first classical game. Playing with the white pieces, Nakamura chose to force a threefold repetition early in the game, recognising that Caruana was well-prepared in a sharp line of the Catalan.

In contrast, the Elimination Bracket provided plenty of drama, with two players being knocked out of the competition. Levon Aronian secured a crucial victory over Wesley So, ending So's campaign in this year's tournament. Meanwhile, the longest match of the day saw Sam Sevian eliminating Leinier Dominguez after a gruelling battle that extended into multiple tiebreakers.

After losing the first rapid game, Sevian managed to win on demand in the rematch, keeping his hopes alive. Dominguez had a worse yet defensible position in the second game, but a costly blunder in mutual time trouble immediately lost the game.

45...Qxf2 simply gives up the queen - 46.Qxf2 prompted Dominguez's resignation.

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The players then proceeded to a series of blitz tiebreaks, where they traded wins in the first two games before Sevian secured a victory and a draw, thus advancing to the next stage of the Elimination Bracket.

Sam Sevian | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Levon Aronian knocked out Wesley So | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

All games - Open (champions bracket)

All games - Open (elimination bracket)

Links

• Official site
• Fabiano Caruana wins American Cup! (2022)
• Hikaru Nakamura wins the American Cup (2023)
• Aronian and Lee clinch American Cup titles (2024)