Mikhail Antipov wins Saint Louis Masters ahead of Fabiano Caruana

by Stefan Liebig
3/2/2026 – Mikhail Antipov won the Saint Louis Masters ahead of Fabiano Caruana. The Russian-born grandmaster, playing under the US flag, scored an impressive victory over Andy Woodward in the final round. He had gone into the last round level on points with the rating favourite. However, Caruana was only able to add half a point to his tally after drawing with Francesco Sonis, despite having reached a winning position. As a result, Caruana finished half a point short - the same half point he had voluntarily given up by requesting a bye in round five. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Antipov, Caruana and Lodici on the podium

Only a few players outside the absolute world elite manage to celebrate a tournament victory ahead of the world number three. Mikhail Antipov is one of them: he won the Saint Louis Masters by finishing half a point ahead of Fabiano Caruana, who boasts a 204 rating advantage over him. In round three, Antipov held Caruana to a draw with the black pieces and followed this with two further draws. That he nevertheless finished half a point ahead of Caruana was thanks to four consecutive wins in the final rounds.

The final round: Andy Woodward against Mikhail Antipov in the foreground; Fabiano Caruana in the background, who has to settle for second place | Photo: Lennart Ootes.

In addition to receiving a bye in round five, Caruana could only draw his last two games with black. The top seed therefore had to be content with second place. Another half point further back finished Lorenzo Lodici, who had taken half a point from Caruana in round seven. Even so, Caruana's performance was enough to gain 2.1 rating points (he lost 1.1 rating points in two Bundesliga games this period). At one stage his live rating even climbed above the 2800 mark, but the two draws in the final three rounds cost him a jump over the magical barrier.

For the tournament winner, the result meant a much bigger leap in the rankings: with six wins and three draws, he improved his Elo rating from 2591 to 2617 thanks to a world-class performance rating of 2836. At 28 years of age, he is now very close to his career best of 2626 from July 2018.

Here is Antipov's final-round game, which secured him an unexpected tournament victory:

Missed opportunity

Caruana did have chances to draw level with the tournament winner. From move 34 until reaching the time control, Caruana had a winning position, but was unable to convert it into a full point. The underdog then held the pawn endgame comfortably for a few more moves before the players agreed a draw:

Francesco Sonis had played a strong game and held the balance up to this point. With 35.gxf4+?? he gave the favourite the chance to keep pace with Antipov.

After 35...Kxf4 36.Ke2?! the position deteriorated further. However, Caruana failed to find the correct path to victory: 36...a4 37.Kf2 Bd5 38.Ke2 h5?

For example, the win would follow with 38...Bc4+ 39.Kf2 Bd3 40.b4 h5 41.Ke1 Ke3 42.Kd1 Be2+, and so on. After 39.Kf2 h4 40.Ke2 Bc4+?? the position was suddenly equal again, and a draw was agreed shortly afterwards.

Good spirits among the tournament participants | Photo: Lennart Ootes.

Andy Woodward (centre in the photo), who had recently made a strong impression in Wijk aan Zee, narrowly missed out on the top ten in eleventh place. A further eight places back came Grigoriy Oparin, who entered the tournament as the second seed.

Particularly noteworthy was the performance of IM Tanitoluwa Adewumi (born 2010, Elo 2433). Seeded 50th, he finished in 8th place. With 6½ points, he missed out on the bronze medal by just half a point. After his opening-round defeat against Max Warmerdam, who himself finished only 40th, Adewumi did not lose again throughout the event.

Rose Atwell and Jennifer Yu, who both made a spectacular start to the tournament, eventually finished in 51st and 60th place respectively – close to their seeding positions. Carissa Yip finished 37th.

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.
1 Antipov, Mikhail Al. 7,5
2 Caruana, Fabiano 7
3 Lodici, Lorenzo 6,5
4 Pranav, V 6
5 Aryan, Chopra 6
6 Hong, Andrew 6
7 Sonis, Francesco 6
8 Adewumi, Tanitoluwa 6
9 Mishra, Abhimanyu 5,5
10 Durarbayli, Vasif 5,5
11 Woodward, Andy 5,5
12 Quesada Perez, Yasser 5,5
13 Akobian, Varuzhan 5,5
14 Stremavicius, Titas 5,5
15 Kadric, Denis 5,5
16 Kantor, Gergely 5,5
17 Putnam, Liam 5,5
18 Atanasov, Anthony 5,5
19 Oparin, Grigoriy 5
20 Bharath, Subramaniyam H 5
21 Fier, Alexandr 5
22 Can, Isik 5
23 Hardaway, Brewington 5
24 Matviishen, Viktor 5
25 Kacharava, Nikolozi 5

...70 players

All games

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Topics: Fabiano Caruana, Lorenzo Lodici, Mikhail Antipov, Saint Louis Masters 2026
Stefan Liebig, born in 1974, is a journalist and co-owner of a marketing agency. He now lives in Barterode near Göttingen. At the age of five, strange pieces on his neighbour’s shelf aroused his curiosity. Since then, the game of chess has cast a spell over him. Flying high in the NRW youth league with his home club SV Bad Laasphe and several appearances in the second division team of Tempo Göttingen were highlights for the former youth South Westphalia champion.
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