Day three of The American Cup, now featuring four brackets in total, will be on Monday, March 17, starting at 12:00 p.m. CDT / 17:00 CET / 09:30 p.m. IST.
Two days, eight games, and still no decisive results in the classical games of the Open section. Across the four classical games on day two, Nakamura was the only player to miss a win.
Open Day 2 Results
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
The higher-rated player advanced in every match except for Dominguez vs. So. That was the longest match, by the way, as after six draws Dominguez finally won with White in armageddon.
Open Champions Bracket After Day 2
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
The following players are one match loss away from exiting the tournament.
Open Champions Bracket After Day 2
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
Nakamura vs. Mishra was a close encounter, and the 16-year-old came ever so close to winning it. Nakamura, after winning, told IM Eric Rosen, "It was a pretty terrible match from the standpoint of quality. I have to give credit to Abhimanyu, he defended well I think in both classical games, and then this tiebreaker was pretty insane."
Just like in game one, Nakamura outplayed his younger opponent after trading queens and eventually achieved a winning position. But a single mistake in 33...Ba7? (on Saturday he had two chances to win and missed both) caused Nakamura's advantage to evaporate, and he never got another chance.
This match, just like all the others in the Open, went to playoffs. Players would contest two matches (two games each) before playing an armageddon if scores were still even.
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
Nakamura 3.5-2.5 Mishra
The playoffs started with an utter shock as Mishra, who had mostly defended until this point, won the very first game. Nakamura explained that he overreached in an equal position (Mishra seemed to be offering a repetition on move 34, which Nakamura declined) and eventually collapsed in the queen endgame when he fell into a fatal, forced queen trade.
That win was with the black pieces, which meant that Mishra needed to draw with White to advance. He outplayed Nakamura convincingly in the Modern Defense and was winning again, but his time usage came back to bite him. Nakamura, playing against his opponent's six seconds, found a knight fork to win.
After a solid draw in the Italian Opening, Nakamura closed out the match in the final game. He remarked that even when he had won a piece, his technique in converting it was shaky. Still, a win is a win, and the way he returned the piece for "floating pawns" at the end is nice:
A close call for Nakamura, who nevertheless came clutch in the end. He explained, "Something's wrong with my brain, but you know, it still seems to be relatively decent, so I guess I should be happy about that."
Asked about his last video, titled "RETIREMENT INCOMING???," Nakamura explained that his team—and not him—come up with the video titles. But he is serious about retirement being on the horizon: "Lately, I haven't really been enjoying chess very much. I think as far as classical chess goes, we'll see. I'm not happy and things are not going in the right direction," and he alluded to his declining form in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Weissenhaus and, earlier, at the 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships.
Lately, I haven't really been enjoying chess very much.
—Hikaru Nakamura
You can listen to his recap of the day in the video below.
Caruana 2.5-1.5 Robson
Caruana played an Accelerated Sicilian Dragon with Black in the classical game, and though he was slightly worse, they made a draw by threefold repetition on move 24. The playoffs lasted two games, and they were wild. Caruana explained, "I was dead lost [in game one]. Not even dead lost, I was going to resign."
The classical game was the calm before the storm. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
But after a split-second hesitation, Caruana realized maybe he had a chance, and he managed to draw from what was once a clean piece-down (and pawn-down!) endgame. The white b-pawn took the game into its own hands, dribbling past the entire enemy team to reach the back rank, and it saved the game.
The next game, which Caruana won to take the match, had an absurdly rare imbalance. He had a queen and two bishops against a queen and rook plus four extra pawns (which quickly became three). He explained, "It was a bit easier for me in time trouble just because his king is the one being attacked, although normally the pawns would prevail.... At some point he blundered and I won material."
Aronian 4-2 Sevian
After a draw in the Italian Opening, the battle of Armenian-Americans went to four blitz games but not all the way to armageddon. Aronian won the last three games to end the match with a two-point lead.
Actually, as he came 20 minutes late to the players meeting, Aronian wasn't aware that the tiebreaks went straight to blitz; he'd expected it to go to rapid first. He rapidly managed to adjust.
Aronian showed he's still got it. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
Sevian won the first game when a wrong king move by Aronian led to checkmate.
But Aronian won the next three games. First, he pulled magic in a pawn-up but equal endgame. Then, with Black again, he won a piece. He finished the third and final game with the threat, but not execution, of checkmate on the back rank.
So 3-4 Dominguez
Dominguez vs. So was the longest match, as they drew every game until the armageddon. Dominguez had a huge advantage in game two of the playoffs, but other than that, they were extremely even and accurate.
The closest match of the day. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
The armageddon game was an emotional rollercoaster, however, as So went from winning with Black, to being worse, to suddenly hanging his rook.
On Monday, the Champions Bracket will continue playing one classical game, but the Elimination Bracket will feature only rapid.
Women's: Paikidze Wins On Demand, Lee Takes It In Tiebreaks
Three matches were decided without any need for playoffs, but Paikidze gave Le a run for her money in their match.
Women's Day 2 Results
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
On Monday, we will see the big matchup of two tournament favorites: Lee vs. Krush, the only two players who have won the event so far.
Women's Champions Bracket After Day 2
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
The following players are on their last life in the Elimination Bracket.
Women's Elimination Bracket After Day 2
Image: Courtesy of the Saint Louis Chess Club.
The reigning U.S. women's champion, Yip, won the flashiest classical game of the day. The highlight was her double exchange sacrifice, 23...Rb3!?, followed by the second one, 24.Bxf8 Rxf3!. She explained her thought process behind the creative first move: "Honestly, I didn't calculate everything through after ...Rb3, but I just thought it's so beautiful I have to play it."
"I just thought it's so beautiful I have to play it," said Yip. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
The computer shows that there indeed was a defense starting with 25.Bxg7, a move Yip calculated, but she explained that from what she saw, "Everything runs into some variant of ...Nf4 eventually." GM Rafael Leitao shares his insights into this round's impressive Game of the Day.
After a draw the previous day, Abrahamyan came prepared with the rare 2.b3 against the French Defense, and the game was already in new terrain by move six. Though she felt she lost some control in the middlegame, she said, "Once I started moving my pieces to the kingside, I started feeling better about my position." In the style of the King's Indian Attack, Abrahamyan won with a nice piece sacrifice 29.Bxh6!, with Black resigning seven moves later.
Abrahamyan mentioned with a grin that she had asked ChatGPT for advice before the match. The question was how to avoid time trouble against Zatonskih, and it gave what she thought were good answers, like playing an aggressive opening. She joked that her next question, for Monday, will be, "How to beat Carissa in chess?" In seriousness, she said that she's struggled against Yip and that "tomorrow's going to be a difficult match for me."
Abrahamyan won a close match. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
After winning Saturday's game, Krush won her match by holding a draw with the black pieces against Pourkashiyan. She explained, "At some point I sacrificed a pawn for the bishop pair, and I thought I had very good compensation." When they got into an opposite-color bishop endgame, Pourkashiyan never had a chance.
Krush went on to hold a solid draw. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
There was just one playoff—between Paikidze and Lee. This was only made possible because Paikidze managed to win on demand in the second classical game to even the score. There, she found the nice exchange sacrifice 33.Rxd6! Rxd6, followed up by the nicer (and only winning move) 34.Ra7!. Lee, seeing the full combination, gave up her queen, denying the back rank checkmate motif from appearing on the board.
Lee 3-1 Paikidze
That was the only win Paikidze would score in the match, however, as Lee would win the two blitz games that followed. Lee explained that her focus was on calming down after the tough loss: "I did feel kind of tilted, but I just thought we're going into blitz, and whatever happens I just need to adjust my mentality because blitz is mainly about nerves."
Blitz is mainly about nerves.
—Alice Lee
Paikidze came close to scoring the only comeback, but not quite. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Saint Louis Chess Club.
Both blitz games featured fearsome attacks, but the second one was even more brutal than the first. Paikidze's 27.Kh2? may have felt like it tucked the king to safety, but Lee quickly showed that only the opposite was the case.
The Champions Bracket starts back up with just one classical game on Monday, while we will see faster action in the Elimination Bracket.
How to review?
You can watch the event on the Saint Louis Chess Club YouTube or Twitch channels. You can watch coverage of Nakamura's games on his Kick and YouTube channels. You can also check out the games on our dedicated events page.
The 2025 American Cup, taking place from March 15-24, is an over-the-board tournament featuring some of the strongest players in the United States. The time control is 90 minutes for the entire game plus a 30-second increment starting on move one; rapid games are played at the 15+10 time control. The prize fund is $250,000.
