Five straight Grand Final appearances
The women's title at the American Cup was only decided after the Grand Final Reset took place on the tenth day of action in Saint Louis. Alice Lee defeated Carissa Yip to claim her third consecutive title in the event. After Wednesday's highly dramatic Grand Final had failed to determine the champion, the tournament concluded with a two-game rapid match.
In the first rapid game - which would turn out to be the decisive encounter of the match - Lee had the black pieces and chose the Caro-Kann Defence. A hard-fought struggle followed, with neither player managing to establish lasting control in the middlegame.
The game eventually reached a complex imbalance in which Yip had queen, bishop, knight and two extra pawns, while Lee relied on two rooks and two knights for dynamic counterplay. On move 30, Yip failed to foresee a critical tactical resource, and that single oversight allowed Lee to seize the initiative and convert her chances, securing a crucial victory.
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.
Sixteen players showed up to fight for the American Cup titles (in both sections) over a week ago - and after Wesley So secured the open title on Wednesday, only Carissa Yip and Alice Lee continued battling for glory at the Saint Louis Chess Club on day ten of the competition | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The second game became the final game of both the match and the tournament. Playing white, Lee needed a draw to clinch the title and succeeded in doing so after a long 117-move struggle. Yip continued to play on for quite some time in an opposite-coloured bishop endgame with an extra pawn - which was theoretically drawn.
It was only a matter of time until the draw was agreed, confirming Lee's overall match victory by a 1½–½ score.
The two highest-rated woman players in the US are also good friends | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The American Cup has proved to be a particularly successful event for Lee. She has reached the Grand Final in all five editions held from 2022 through 2026. In the first two editions, she lost the deciding match on both occasions to eight-time US women's champion Irina Krush. In the third edition, in 2024, she turned the tables by defeating Krush to claim her first title, and she subsequently added further triumphs in 2025 and now in 2026, beating Tatev Abrahamyan and Carissa Yip respectively in the Grand Final. Notably, Lee first took part in the tournament at the age of 11.
At this year's edition, the teenager from Minneapolis advanced through the Championship Bracket with convincing match victories over Rachel Li (2–0), Zoey Tang (1½–½) and Yip (2½–1½). Up to that point she remained undefeated in the event, both in classical chess - where she scored 4½ out of 6 - and in blitz, in which she won both of her games.
Unlock the secrets of one of the most resilient and strategic openings in chess with our comprehensive video course, “The Caro-Kann Defence.”The Grand Final itself began with two classical draws and was followed by a dramatic sequence of tiebreak encounters in which Yip twice managed to win on demand in order to force the Reset. As Lee had never been knocked down to the Elimination Bracket, the rapid games on Thursday were her first in that time control at this year's event, and she scored the aforementioned 1½–½ victory to secure the title.
Lee's performance also brought notable rating gains. In classical chess, she added 18.2 points, climbing to 32nd place in the women's live rating list and moving ahead of Irina Krush as the second-highest-rated woman player in the United States, behind Carissa Yip. In blitz, she gained 53.4 rating points, rising to 15th in the live rankings.
All games - Championship Bracket
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