Recaps

GM Leinier Dominguez, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Irina Krush, and FM Alice Lee all advanced to the finals of the Champions Bracket today, after defeating their respective opponents in the semifinals, relegating them to the Elimination Bracket.

An action packed day saw five matches decided in the playoffs and one match (Caruana-Xiong) made it all the way to Armageddon, finishing in a dramatic time scramble.

After all was said and done, Aronian, Dominguez, Sevian, and Caruana from the Open Field along with Krush, Tokhirjonova, Lee, and Abrahamyan from the Women’s Field advanced to the next stage of the Champions Bracket. Meanwhile the rest of the players were relegated to the Elimination Bracket, where they will get a second chance to win the tournament starting tomorrow.

GM Wesley So became the 2021 U.S. Champion after winning a three-way playoff tiebreak against GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Sam Sevian with a final score of 2.0/2. 

So managed to defeat both Caruana and Sevian in the rapid round-robin, earning him the $50,000 first place prize and his third national title.

IM Carissa Yip clinched victory in the 2021 U.S. Women’s Championship with a round to spare, after defeating IM Nazi Paikidze in today’s penultimate round. With an unreachable score of 8.0/10, Yip also made history by becoming the first woman ever to defeat four former champions in a U.S. Women’s Championship. Currently tied for 2nd place are GM Irina Krush and WGM Begim Tokhirjonova, with 6.5/10.