SAINT LOUIS, MO — In a match that will be studied and debated for years to come, Grandmasters Fabiano Caruana and Awonder Liang delivered a performance of almost unbelievable precision at the 2025 U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis.
The two elite players faced off in Round 3, sharing the point in a game that stands as a staggering statistical anomaly: a draw by three-fold repetition after just 36 moves. While short draws are not uncommon at the top level, the quality of play achieved by both players transformed this brief encounter into a watershed moment for modern chess.
The true shockwave came from the post-game analysis of the engine. Both Fabiano Caruana, one of the world’s highest-rated players, and the highly talented Awonder Liang registered an astonishing, near-perfect 99.3% engine accuracy.
Achieving an accuracy rating above 99% in a professional classical game is an event of extreme rarity, signifying that a player has effectively played a flawless game, matching the first choice of the world’s strongest chess engines on virtually every single move. For both players to achieve not just this rare feat, but to land on the exact same 99.3% figure in a 36-move duel of perfect preparation and calculation, is a statistical phenomenon that may never be repeated.
The shared point moved Caruana to 2.0/3, putting him in a tie for second place (T-2) with GM Levon Aronian. Liang, with a score of 1.5/3, landed in a multi-way tie for fourth place (T-4) alongside Sam Shankland and Grigoriy Oparin.
