The 35th annual Chicago Open concluded over Memorial Day weekend, drawing elite chess players and masters to the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel from May 21–25, 2026.
Designated as both an American Classic and a Heritage event by US Chess, the tournament featured an enhanced 200 US Chess Grand Prix points and a massive, fully guaranteed $100,000 prize fund distributed across eight competitive sections.
The premier Open Section was highly competitive, concluding with a dramatic five-way tie for first place. Serbian Grandmaster Alexey Sarana (2664), American Grandmaster Jianchao Zhou (2605), Ukrainian Grandmaster Viktor Matviishen (2537), FIDE Grandmaster Semen Khanin (2597), and American International Master Jason S. Liang (2440) all finished the grueling tournament with excellent scores of 7.0 points out of 9 games.
Ultimately, it was top-seeded GM Alexey Sarana who edged out the field on tiebreak parameters to officially claim the championship trophy.
The five co-champions will split the top placement prizes from the Open section’s major pool ($10,000 for 1st, $5,000 for 2nd, $2,500 for 3rd, $1,300 for 4th, and $1,000 for 5th), with Sarana securing the additional $300 clear/tiebreak winner bonus.
The Open Section, which offered the potential for players to secure GM and IM norms, had 155 participants and was contested over a 9-round Swiss format under classical time controls (40 moves in 80 minutes, followed by a sudden death control of 30 minutes with a 30-second delay from move one).
The remaining seven class brackets ranged from Under 2300 down to Under 1000, utilizing 7-round formats with various scheduling options to accommodate hundreds of local and international participants. The tournament also featured the return of the Under 1000 Section, which ran as a swift two-day event over May 24–25.
Open section final standings:
1-5. GM Alexey Sarana 2664 SRB, GM Jianchao Zhou 2605 USA, GM Viktor Matviishen 2537 UKR, GM Semen Khanin 2597 FID and IM Jason S Liang 2440 USA – 7.0
6-10. GM Brandon Jacobson 2594 USA, IM Liam Henry Putnam 2497 USA, GM Awonder Liang 2704 USA, GM Nico Werner Chasin 2485 USA and GM Bharath Subramaniyam H 2599 IND – 6.5
11-21. Sam Luger 2201 USA, GM Emilio Cordova 2491 PER, IM Roman Pyrih 2399 UKR, IM Tanitoluwa Adewumi 2473 USA, IM Tianqi Wang 2349 USA, IM Sam A Schmakel 2437 USA, GM Brian Escalante 2449 PER, IM Joseph Levine 2410 USA, GM Sergio Barrientos 2476 COL, IM Edward Song 2391 USA and Broderick Bauml 2048 USA – 6.0 etc 155 players
