Nakamura, Caruana Advance To Champions Open Final
American numbers one and two, GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, will clash in the Open Champions Final of The American Cup 2025. Nakamura advanced after scoring a classical win with Black against GM Leinier Dominguez, while it took Caruana two sets of blitz tiebreaks to defeat GM Levon Aronian 3.5-2.5.
IM Alice Lee staved off a dangerous attack by GM Irina Krush to draw and advance to the Women's American Cup Champions Final. She will face WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, who defeated IM Carissa Yip in tiebreaks after losing the classical game.
Day five of The American Cup will be on Wednesday, March 19, starting at 12:00 p.m. CDT / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Champions Semifinals:
Open Champions: Nakamura Scores 1st Classical Win
Last year's champion, Aronian, did not make it to the Champions Final this year. Instead, we will have a clash of the top two Americans.
Champions Bracket After Day 4
Nakamura won in the classical portion, while Caruana and Aronian had a much longer match. After a draw in classical, it took four blitz games for Caruana to defeat Aronian for the first time in The American Cup since 2022.
Champions Bracket Day 4 Results
Nakamura 1.5-0.5 Dominguez
Four days in, Nakamura is the first player to win a classical game in the Open tournament. He won a long, 72-move maneuvering game in the Italian Opening, but one that exploded with tactics at the end. He explained:
Today's game was an interesting battle in the opening. I think both of us were a little bit confused. I thought what Leinier did with this whole Be6 and c3 is not supposed to be particularly good, but on the other hand when I played d5 and Nd7 he had this look on his face like he thought I made a mistake.
Nakamura then said that Dominguez relaxed a bit too much in the middlegame and allowed "this pawn on a5 and grip on the queenside." He thought Dominguez's decision to trade bishops later on was "just an insane move to play." Indeed, Nakamura had an advantage, and he did miss an immediate win with 39...Nxb3!. But he made up for it later in the game, finding a similar tactic with 53...Nxd3! to put away the game.
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day.
Nakamura told IM Eric Rosen that he would have expected to draw both games against Dominguez and to win against GM Abhimanyu Mishra, but the opposite happened—he drew both classical games in that previous match. He's crossed back over 2800 by live rating, but he said he doesn't really think about it.
Nakamura plans to play in Norway Chess and the World Cup, but we are unlikely to see him in the next Candidates Tournament, based on what he said: "As for the notion of playing 40 [required tournament] games is not realistic. I basically have to make a decision, do I want to focus on the Freestyle Chess or do I want to try and play 40 games?" He added that he doesn't think others will prioritize the Candidates over Freestyle Chess either.
"Getting into the Candidates is very tough, winning the Candidates is basically a lottery. I don't think anybody's going to prioritize that over playing Freestyle," says Nakamura about the Candidates Tournament. #AmericanCup pic.twitter.com/9aOmXYYDYP
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 18, 2025
You can watch his recap video below.
Caruana 3.5-2.5 Aronian
Aronian beat Caruana in the last two editions, and it was a close match this time around, but the American number-two prevailed in a match that left him feeling "jittery" in the interview. He told Rosen, "My play hasn't been great. It's only with a great deal of fortune that I've made it to the Final of the Winners [Champions] Bracket."
The classical game was a relatively dull draw in the Queen's Gambit Declined Ragozin. Aronian had a slight edge, and the commentators pointed out that 31.Rb6 Nc6 32.Kh3 may have put more pressure, but even there the advantage would have been minimal. Caruana made a comfortable draw in the rook and knight endgame.
That brought us to the blitz playoffs, which were much more exciting and full of mistakes.
"It really came down to this third blitz game," said Caruana, "I'm super lucky, but it was out of control for both of us... I just came out ahead."
Let's start from the top. Caruana won a heavy-piece endgame with a mating attack in game one, but then Aronian struck back on demand in game two. Caruana was already lost, but he resigned immediately when he hung his rook in one move.
Ouch! Fabiano Caruana blunders the rook, resigns, and we're going to have two more blitz games!https://t.co/OwnH3dhc2j#AmericanCup pic.twitter.com/bHoKbuTn2X
— chess24 (@chess24com) March 18, 2025
Game three was wild, and 59...Qf5 posed a tough question that Aronian had just eight seconds to answer. What do you do about the pin? Just one move kept equality, and he didn't find it.
Aronian had a brief chance to win the game out of the opening in the fourth blitz game, but after he missed it he never got another chance. Caruana was winning, but he found a way to force trades and make a draw to win the match.
Caruana isn't underestimating Nakamura, even if the world number-two has struggled to convert winning positions lately. Caruana said, "He hasn't been in danger in any classical game and he has been winning in three of them, so I still feel like he's a super tough opponent and he has been."
Will he watch Nakamura's recap video? Nope!
Aronian and Dominguez still have a second life in the Elimination Bracket. On Wednesday, two more players will get eliminated.
Women's Champions: Yip Wins On Demand, Then Loses In Playoffs
Abrahamyan nearly fell to a comeback when Yip won the first classical game, but she won out in tiebreaks. Meanwhile, Lee defeated her arch nemesis in this event before the Champions Final.
Lee 1.5-0.5 Krush
Lee just barely drew the classical game, fortunately avoiding tiebreaks. She said, "I thought this game was very dangerous for me, so I'm happy that I didn't have to go into the blitz tiebreaks."
Krush, with the white pieces, played a Reti System where she left her king in the center and went for an all-out attack with h4 and g4. "I didn't expect the opening that she played," said Lee, adding, "I probably should have because I did have trouble with this previously against her and against other opponents."
Lee mostly repelled the attack, but when she grabbed the pawn with 18...Bxh4? White had an opportunity to win with 19.Qb2!. Krush played this move later, but by then it was too late. At the very end, Krush had one more chance to win with 27.f4!, but 27.Rah1? allowed Black to force a draw with perpetual check.
Yip 1-3 Abrahamyan
Abrahamyan advances for the first time to the Champions Bracket Final. Winning it gives a $9,000 bonus (and the bonus is $15,000 in the open).
The classical didn't go well, as Yip managed to do the near-impossible: win on demand with the black pieces. Abrahamyan said, "I felt very off in my classical game today. I just wasn't seeing things clearly. At some point she took my pawn on a4 [on move 20] and I was shocked. I didn't realize my pawn was hanging!" Yip went on to win with two extra pawns.
Whatever wasn't working in the classical seemed to work itself out in the blitz, as Tatev won both games.
In game one, Yip would have won if she found the very nice 31.Bxf5!. Instead, she saw similar tactical themes, but her execution with 32.Bxh6?? blundered an exchange due to the powerful, quiet defense 32...Qg6!. Suddenly, White's pieces were hanging, with no attack.
Yip had to win again on demand with Black, but she didn't manage this time. A "Dragondorf" Sicilian went horribly for her, and she had a bishop trapped on move 19. The game lasted 33 moves, but it was over from the early middlegame.
Next, Abrahamyan will play Lee in the Champions Final. "She's been a very tough opponent for me," she said candidly, but that's also what she said about Yip!
Krush and Yip will have another shot in the Elimination Bracket, which you can see below.
How to watch?
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.
GMs Yasser Seirawan, Ioan-Cristian Chirila, and WGM Katerina Nemcova hosted the broadcast.
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.
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