Awonder Liang Sweeps 2026 Charlotte Open: Full Recap!

With five victories and a half-point bye in six rounds, GM Awonder Liang has topped yet another Charlotte Chess Center event, placing clear first at the 2026 Charlotte Open.

This flagship CCC tournament, featuring a guaranteed prize fund of $15,000, took place over MLK Weekend at the UNC Charlotte Mariott Hotel. Including side events, the tournament hosted a whopping 404 players! Those in the main event were split into seven USCF-rated sections, with the top three also FIDE-rated. Alongside the Open itself, the CCC hosted a U700 scholastic tournament on Saturday, as well as a $1,000 blitz tournament on Sunday, free to all main event participants.

Championship

GM Awonder Liang is no stranger to chess success in Charlotte, winning the US Masters in a tiebreak playoff just a couple months ago. He also tied for first at the Charlotte Fall Open and Charlotte Spring Open last year!

After a first-round bye, Awonder won all his games to finish with 5.5/6, winning clear first place and the event's top prize of $1,600. Typically much higher-rated than his opponents (even other GMs!), he has an offbeat, amorphous style, tending to avoid big mainlines in favor of more flexible or noncommittal sidelines, especially those without settled pawn structures. It's also common to see Awonder accumulate huge advantages on the clock, including in this game against NM Vedic Panda:

Facing fellow GM Razvan Preotu, himself a seasoned veteran of CCC events, Liang opted for 4. c3 and 5. Bb5, a somewhat rare sideline against the 3...c5 Advanced Caro. He quickly took the game into French-like territory where his extra space and king safety advantage proved decisive.

Despite the loss, GM Preotu had a strong event, winning all his other games to tie for second place with 5/6.

Also finishing on 5/6 was GM Lazaro Bruzon, who drew local FM James Chirilov and NM Mitch Fishbein but never lost a game. Needing a win in the last round to clinch a share of second, Bruzon exploited the weaknesses left behind by his opponent's early pawn pushes:

Preotu and Bruzon each took home $700, while GM Emilio Cordova scored 4.5/6 and finished in shared fourth with NM Naveen Prabhu. The former had some drawing chances in his last round game against Awonder, but wasn't quite able to hold a difficult bishop ending. Both players earned $200, while NMs Fishbein, Andrew Wu, James Nguyen, and Sri Bondalapati split the U2300 prize ($225 apiece). 

Under 2100

The U2100 section saw a big logjam as no player entered the final round with more than 4/5. Three of the section's highest-rated players, experts Kabir Azad, Jason Marshal, and Ruben Quintans, were each within that score group, but they all lost the last game to finish half a point out of the money. Instead, it was a three-way tie between Arush Balakumar, Aldiyar Zhandaulet, and local expert Patrick McCartney, each scoring 5/6 for $700 apiece.

Arush Balakumar's fourth game was a marathon, featuring deep time pressure and a complex queen ending with lots of twists and turns. 

Finishing alone in fourth place with 4.5/6 was Elijah Neumann ($200). He never lost a game, drawing in rounds two, three, and five, and winning his final game against local talent Matthew Khariouk. 

Under 1900

There was perhaps an even bigger pileup in the U1900 section than the U2100, as four(!) players tied for first. Khushi Kumari, Saharsh Koka, John Hanna, and Sihan Zheng each scored 5/6 and received $500. Incredibly, none of them played each other in the event!

Under 1700

Aditya Raj had perhaps the most impressive Charlotte Open of all, scoring a perfect 6/6 in the U1700! Raj's incredible tournament earned him 150 rating points and $800, yet he was actually in lots of trouble in both of his games on Monday.

The ending to his game against Hanwen Lu is shown near the end of this recap in puzzle format, while his last round win over Sanjay Allu required lots of patience. White won material early, but there was no easy way to convert it into a win, so black slowly crept forward and created pressure on the queenside until the balance finally tipped in his favor:

Four players scored 4.5/6 and split second-through-fifth: Johann Jayabarath, Otto Restelli, Vincent Lovello, and Zachary Cates. Each won $225, with Cates in particular gaining over 150 rating points and jumping to a new peak of 1619.

Under 1500

With a 5.5/6 score, young Devan Bhat was another of the Charlotte Open's top performers, gaining 166 points and achieving a new peak rating of his own! Bhat ceded a draw to Advik Mani in the fifth round but was perfect in all other games, finishing in clear first and earning $800. 

Just behind him were Spencer Boone and Matthew Coleman (5/6, $350) and Sowbhagya Velagala (4.5/6, $200). Boone and Velagala are familiar names at the CCC, while Coleman was playing in only his third tournament ever! 

Under 1300

With a draw in the last round and wins in all other games, Anirudh Arunprasad emerged as the clear winner in the U1300, collecting $700.

Anirudh defeated both of the players tying for second, Munisa Irmukhamed and David Morris, who each scored 5/6 ($325). Bhargava Meda, the one player to hold Anirudh to a draw, scored 4.5 and won the fourth place prize of $150.

Under 1100

Our U1100 champions were Taylor Brooks and Adam Spencer, each gaining well over 200 rating points in the process. Brooks took home the first place plaque, but each player won $550, with Spencer's impressive round five win included here:

Sutton Felty, playing in his first ever tournament, lost his first game and then won out, winning $250 for a 5/6 performance! The final U1100 prize was split five ways between Richard Lane, Jackson Zerkle, Julian Warsch, Randall Herbert, and John-Daniel Laurence ($30 apiece).

Scholastic U700, Blitz, and Fun

The Charlotte Chess Center hosted several other events alongside the classical portion of the Charlotte Open, including the U700 scholastic tournament and Sunday's blitz championship.

Out of 38 players in the scholastic, including many CCC students, two scored a perfect 5/5: Nikshay Gupta and Anirudh Kannan. The latter won as black in the blitz playoff to claim the title. Both players' ratings jumped into the 800s following the tournament!

Although he didn't play in the main event, GM Olexander Bortnyk visited the tournament on Sunday evening to sweep the blitz tournament. With a perfect 6/6, Bortnyk (a Charlotte Chess Center coach!) earned the top prize of $300. Fellow CCC coach GM Kayden Troff tied with FMs Andrew Jiang and James Chirilov for second place, alongside NMs Graham Horobetz and Sri Bondalapati ($58 apiece). The U1700 section was topped by William Wu, who also won all six games and took home $120. 

Other blitz prizewinners:

- Jason Marshal and Namish Kondabathini (Top U2100 - $30 each)

- Sihan Zheng, Jonah Warsch, and Tyler Murray (Top U1900 - $16.67 each)

- Landon Devault (Second U1700 - $40)

- Andrew Goldfarb, Aarush Pand, Mukhil Arunkumar, and Yashwin Nallu (Third-Sixth U1700 - $25 each)

- Jackson Zerkle and Bryan Powe (Top U1300 - $20 each)

Other side events included commentary, game analysis, and "Play the Master" blitz with GM Kayden Troff on Saturday, as well as a book signing and Q&A with chess.com co-founder IM Danny Rensch. Rensch and WGM Dina Belenkaya each hosted their own sessions of "Play the Master" on Sunday and Monday, and the two even faced each other in the blitz tournament, with Rensch winning as black.

Puzzles!

Before wrapping up this report, I'd like to offer a little selection of tactics puzzles from last weekend's games. They're arranged (roughly) in order of increasing difficulty, but your mileage may vary:

Standings from the tournament, complete with USCF rating results, can be found at this link. A big thanks to all who participated in the 2026 Charlotte Open, as well as to the organizers who helped make this event possible and to Kelly Centrelli for providing the photographs in this recap! 

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NM Dennis Norman

Chess Coach - Club Journalist