The U.S. Championship Starts Monday

It's 2020 and there's COVID, so this year's U.S. Championship, like pretty much everything in the chess world - and the broader world - won't be the way it was in 2019. Having 12 players is pretty normal, but the other conditions aren't. As you'd expect, the participants will play online, not in person. Further - a first for the U.S. Championship, but pretty much in keeping with what has become standard this year, they're using a rapid time control (25'+5"). That will allow the event to finish in just four days, even if a playoff is needed. There will be three games a day the first three days and two games on the last day (plus the playoff, if necessary). Play begins on Monday at 1 p.m. St. Louis time (= 2 p.m. ET), and that is in fact the start time for all four days.

Three of the big(gest?) four are playing: Wesley So, Leinier Dominguez, and Hikaru Nakamura are in; Fabiano Caruana is not, perhaps because the Candidates were supposed to resume in a week. A pity for him, and for us as fans too, but it's not as if the tournament is weak in his absence. In addition to the superstars just mentioned, Jeffery Xiong (2709) and Sam Shankland (2691) are playing, along with Ray Robson, Sam Sevian, Dariusz Swiercz, Alex Lenderman, Awonder Liang, Alejandro Ramirez, and Elshan Moradiabadi. Here are the first round pairings, to whet your appetites: 

• Dominguez - Nakamura (that'll start the tournament with a bang)
• Sevian - Swiercz
• Moradiabadi - Shankland
• Xiong - Liang
• Robson - Ramirez
• So - Lenderman

More details here (and through that page).

This is the main event, but there have been a series of preliminary U.S. Championship events leading up to this. It's probably of interest almost only to Americans, but here are the winners of the preliminary tournaments:

Girls' Championship: Carissa Yip (she narrowly missed winning the women's championship title, finishing half a point back in clear second)

Boys' Championship: GM John Burke defeated fellow GM Jeffery Xiong in a playoff.

Seniors' Championship: GM Joel Benjamin

Women's Championship: GM Irina Krush