Hikaru Nakamura is still the only player to win a classical game in the open section of the American Cup after he powered to a 1.5:0.5 victory over Leinier Dominguez. Hikaru will face Wesley So, who overcame Fabiano Caruana in rapid tiebreaks. For a second year in a row, 13-year-old Alice Lee will face 8-time US Women's Champion Irina Krush in the Champions final of the American Women’s Cup.

Hikaru Nakamura hit a 2775 live rating as he made it two classical wins, two draws, in this year’s American Cup.

Hikaru has been in dominant form so far, and had the better chances in the 1st game against Leinier Dominguez before sealing the match in the second. The current US no. 1 sprung an early surprise by playing the Sicilian (“I’m just here to have fun, so why not play something to surprise my opponent”) and got Leinier thinking for 23 minutes on move 9.

Hikaru, meanwhile, kept blitzing out his moves, and knew his opponent had picked wrongly on move 11.

11.g4! is the computer’s choice of g-pawn pushes, while Leinier opted for 11.g3. Hikaru commented:

Hikaru pointed out if you play g4 and it goes badly, “you look like a clown”.

Dominguez still had a very playable position, however, and was ultimately let down by his clock management. He dropped a pawn, came under heavy pressure, and more than once made a move with only a second to spare. Leinier is a brilliant blitz player, but that took its toll, with 47.Kg2? a final losing mistake.

Hikaru spent under a minute to bring down the hammer with 47…Rxe3! 48.fxe3 h4! 49.gxh4 (other moves stop an immediate mate, but allowing Qxg3+ can only end badly) 49…Qh2+ and Leinier resigned, as Qg1# will deliver mate next move.

Hikaru’s opponent in the Champions final will be Wesley So, who continued to play rock solid chess while also finding a way to win matches. The classical games against Fabiano Caruana were drawn in 28 and 52 moves, with relatively little incident.

If Fabiano Caruana is going to defend his title he has to do it via the Elimination bracket | photo: Crystal Fuller

The first rapid game then went Wesley’s way after Caruana’s loose 12…Rab8?!

13.b4! Bb6 14.Na3! bxa4 15.Nc4! and the next 25 moves were all about Fabiano desperately trying to hold onto his queenside pawns. In the end, he failed.

43.Rxb6! Nxb6 44.Qxa1 Na4?! 45.f4! and the rest should have been just a "matter of technique". In fact, Fabi briefly got a chance (53…Qh5!), but down to just a couple of seconds he missed it, and Wesley won a game he noted “went quite smoothly”.

Fabi then had to hit back on demand, but though he briefly got an advantage in the middlegame it fizzled out into nothing before Wesley finally claimed a draw after over 50 moves without a pawn push or capture.

One loss isn’t enough to be knocked out of the double elimination tournament, however, with Caruana now going on to play Aronian, while Dominguez takes on Shankland.

Levon Aronian picked up the win that ultimately knocked out Sam Sevian | photo: Lennart Ootes

Levon recovered from his loss to Dominguez to end Sam Sevian’s event with a 1.5:0.5 victory. He was happy to find an exchange sacrifice in their first rapid game. Sam has just played 23…Nxh4.

24.Bxh4 is playable, but it’s Black having the fun, while after 24.Rxc7! Nf3+ 25.Nxf3 Qxc7 26.Nh4 Levon was happy with his knight on h4.

There was some turbulence later on, but Levon held on to win that game and draw the second to clinch the elimination match.

The other player who is out of the open section is Ray Robson, who lost the longest match of the tournament so far, to Sam Shankland.

The surprise was that Sam managed to win the game he needed to win on demand with the Berlin Endgame, which he later said he’d been studying a lot recently.

Sam Shankland delivers a knockout blow to Ray Robson | photo: Lennart Ootes

Alice Lee vs. Irina Krush, the rematch

Irina Krush has had no need of the Elimination bracket | photo: Lennart Ootes

Irina Krush is the defending American Women’s Cup Champion and once again looks to be in dominant form. She’s won three of her four classical games and could have made it four out of four if she hadn’t decided to settle for the draw she needed to clinch match victory over Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova.

As in 2022 however, the player standing between her and victory is Alice Lee, who was 12 back then and has now turned 13. In 2022 Irina won 1.5:0.5 in the Champions final and then again in the overall final after Alice bounced back via the Elimination bracket.

Alice Lee is getting stronger by the day | photo: Lennart Ootes

Alice looks to be improving fast, and won a very convincing game against 2-time US Women’s Champion Nazi Paikidze.

Here Alice correctly realised that it’s the f3-pawn, which at first had seemed a weakness, that will decide the game. Rather than looking for any checkmating attack she liquidated with 32…Qxb2+! 33.Qxb2 Nxb2 34.Nd2 (34.Kxb2 f2!) 34…Bxd2+! 35.Kxd2 Nc4+ and then manoeuvred the knight to support the f-pawn reaching f2.

Alice commented:

The American Cup continues each day from 19:30 CET (2:30pm ET, 0:00 IST). Watch all the American Cup games live here on chess24: