Fabiano Caruana defeated Elshan Moradiabadi to increase his lead at the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis. Caruana now stands a full point ahead of Sam Sevian, Awonder Liang and Ray Robson — the latter joined the chasing pack after beating Hans Niemann with the black pieces. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Irina Krush scored her third consecutive victory to join Jennifer Yu in first place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes