Nakamura Beats Caruana In Blitz Playoffs, Wins Champions Final
GM Hikaru Nakamura defeated Fabiano Caruana 2.5-1.5 in blitz tiebreaks to win the Champions Final of The American Cup 2025, which comes with a $15,000 bonus. In the Women's American Cup Champions Final, IM Alice Lee survived a dead-lost endgame against WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, thus avoiding tiebreaks. Lee earns the $9,000 bonus as she waits for her Grand Final opponent to be determined.
In the Elimination Bracket, both winners swindled victories out of the jaws of defeat in game one and then went on to win the match 2-0. GM Levon Aronian eliminated Sam Sevian, while GM Irina Krush knocked out IM Nazi Paikidze.
Friday features only the Elimination Finals. Caruana will face Aronian and Krush will face Abrahamyan. That'll be on Friday, March 21, starting at 12:00 p.m. CDT / 17:00 CET / 9:30 p.m. IST. The winners will move on to the Grand Finals.
Champions:
Elimination:
Open Champions: Nakamura Holds Dramatic, "Messy" Game, Wins Playoffs
Nakamura will get a rest day on Friday as Caruana battles with Aronian for the Grand Final spot.
Nakamura 2.5-1.5 Caruana
After drawing the classical game, Nakamura won with Black in the blitz and finally held a draw with White to secure the match. He explained, "The classical games feel very serious, and then everything else is more or less for fun."
The classical game was an intense struggle in the Italian Opening, but neither player was ever at significant risk of losing. As far as accuracy goes, Game Review rated their play at approximately 98.5 percent each, an almost perfect game.
Their moves in blitz were anything but perfect though, and it made for an awesome spectacle. After being hit by an opening novelty in game one, Caruana mishandled the middlegame position. 19.axb4 would have been natural and good; instead he traded on f6 to double the f-pawns. It looked feasible, but it was inaccurate, and Nakamura went on to outplay his American compatriot quickly and confidently.
Nakamura told IM Eric Rosen in the interview he's been keeping track of his time management: "If I get too low on time, my brain doesn't function like it once did." In Thursday's games, he reflected, "I think my time usage wasn't great at the beginning of the second game, but once I started playing with the flow, it was all very good."
Once I started playing with the flow, it was all very good.
—Hikaru Nakamura
The tough loss meant that Caruana would have to win on demand with the black pieces, and he got as big a chance as one could hope for. We had a Sicilian Najdorf that simply exploded early in the opening when Nakamura sacrificed a pawn. Later, Caruana sacrificed his queen for a dangerous passed d-pawn, and he had winning chances, but the American number-one held it together. He said:
It was a pretty tense final game. I thought that I played a great match for the first three games... but I let this last game get very, very messy. A lot of credit has to go to Fabiano for finding this ...d3-d2 maneuver because already in my mind I thought I was going to draw the game at least."
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
As far as strategy goes, Nakamura said that his is similar to the strategy he's employed in poker, which is to minimize very big mistakes. That is, small errors are fine, but just don't blunder. He also said, "I felt that there's basically a 65 percent chance that Fabiano makes a huge blunder and 35 percent chance that I make a huge blunder... and ultimately, it was Fabiano."
You can listen to Nakamura's recap video below.
Nakamura is almost at the finish line. If he wins the American Cup this year, he'll have won the tournament both times he's participated—the first time was in 2023. Already he's guaranteed to win a minimum of $55,000 as runner-up, but $75,000 goes to the champion.
Women's Champions: Lucky Lee Ducks Tiebreaks
Lee won the Champions Bracket without any need for tiebreaks, a huge relief for her and a catastrophe for Abrahamyan.
Lee 2-0 Abrahamyan
"I think overall this game was like a pretty bad game," said Lee. "Of course, I got very lucky that in the end somehow she just made some moves under time pressure that allowed me to escape." She put it nicely: "I'm not happy with my play quality... but I'll take the win."
I'm not happy with my play quality... but I'll take the win.
—Alice Lee
If you haven't flubbed a winning position, you haven't played chess for long enough, and nothing hurts more than when it really matters. After completely outplaying her opponent, Abrahamyan was up an exchange and a pawn, and probably the easiest way was to trade rooks on move 60. She chose to give back the exchange, which wins also, but 63Rxh4? allowed a miraculous defense. Even down two pawns, Lee's 64...Kb4 saved the game.
Abrahamyan will have a second chance, but her next opponent will be a motivated Krush, who also wants revenge against Lee.
Elimination Open: Aronian Survives, Swindles, And Sweeps
Aronian won his match and will play Caruana on Friday.
We saw the same story play out in both Elimination matches. Sevian (just like Paikidze) was winning in game one, blundered, and lost—and neither he nor Paikidze recovered in game two.
Aronian 2-0 Sevian
Sevian impressively outplayed his more experienced opponent in the Italian Opening, and he eventually had a three vs. one pawn majority on the kingside. All that was left was to figure out how to win. Sadly, it takes just one blunder to negate 47 previous moves, and Sevian's 49...Re7?? did just that. Aronian took 12 seconds to play the winning tactic, picking up a full piece and the game.
"I got really lucky today," was the first thing Aronian said in his interview. "I was losing in the first game. Of course, I cannot take credit for that one; that was just a silly blunder on my opponent's part."
I got really lucky today.
—Levon Aronian
The second game featured extremely unorthodox play from Sevian, who brought his king to e2 in the middlegame. By the time they reached the following position on move 15, Sevian had a minute more than he had started with and stood up to walk around. Later, he'd develop the rooks in a strange way, to h3 and a3, and the queenside rook would eventually go to b3, to b5 and, finally to g5. Don't try this at home!
Eventually, Sevian's provocative rook maneuvers backfired, and his marauding rook, which came from a1, got trapped on the b3-square, which was once a transit base for its trip around the world. Aronian won the exchange, and although he let Sevian back into the game, he earned the full point when a draw was enough.
Aronian plays Caruana next in the Elimination Final. As for his approach to each match, he expressed a laid-back attitude, a bit reminiscent of the "I literally don't care" mentality that Nakamura has championed. He said:
I don't have goals or expectations. I just enjoy playing chess and, you know, I don't take any day that I win for granted, so it's a challenge and it's a challenge that I enjoy.
Elimination Women's: Krush Is Back On Track To Grand Final
Krush's climb back to the Grand Final is in full swing, and she is one match win away from completing the comeback. Abrahamyan will have her own desire for revenge too, however.
Krush 2-0 Paikidze
The first game was critical in deciding the match overall. Just like it happened to Sevian, the player who should have won went on to blunder and lose the game.
"That game," said Krush, "it turned out to be so exciting because there was this huge turnaround. And I felt like after I'd played it, like wow, we gave the fans their money's worth!"
Paikidze never came back from that. She played the Reti Opening in game two, but Krush completely neutralized it. The equal endgame came to a screeching halt, however, when Paikidze played the blunder 23.Nc7?? and resigned one move later. Can you find Black's winning move?
Krush, who's participated every year since and including 2022, has never been in the Elimination Bracket before. She said it's extremely challenging to prepare, and it also just takes stamina: "It's my first time playing in the Elimination Bracket, and you're preparing for two colors. That's a lot of work.... It's not an easy scenario, but that's why it's nice when you have an easier match that's over in two games."
She's after that championship title. And she wants that rematch with Lee, she said, "I'm so motivated. That's what I want. I just want another crack at Alice."
I just want another crack at Alice.
—Irina Krush
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.
Previous coverage:
- Day 5: Lee Beats Abrahamyan In Game 1; Nakamura, Caruana Stay Deadlocked
- Day 4: Nakamura, Caruana Advance To Champions Open Final
- Day 3: Lee, Abrahamyan Take Leads Vs. Krush, Yip; Draws In Open Champions Bracket
- Day 2: Nakamura Shuts Down Near-Upset From Mishra
- Day 1: Nakamura, Caruana Miss Wins Vs. Mishra, Robson
