The Saint Louis Chess Club announced Wednesday night that 17-year-old grandmaster Christopher Yoo had been expelled from the U.S. Chess Championships for "gross violations of our Code of Conduct and the U.S, Chess Safe Play Policy" after he crumpled up his scorecard, stormed off, and allegedly "struck a videographer from behind" following his fifth-round loss to Fabiano Caruana. Per local NBC station KSDK, the cops said that Yoo was arrested and charged with fourth-degree assault. They identified the victim as a 24-year-old woman and confirmed that Yoo was released as the case will be dealt with in the juvenile court system.
While Yoo's scorecard meltdown was captured on video, no recording of the full incident has been made public from which we can contextualize the somewhat vague verb "struck." This has prompted some players such as former World Championship challenger Ian Nepomniatchi to wonder whether Yoo getting fully booted from the tournament was an overreaction. That's a fair question—though, according to both KSDK and arbiter Chris Bird, Yoo outright punched the videographer, with Bird calling the punch "completely unprovoked, from behind and in no way accidental." Levon Aronian, currently competing in the championships, said he saw a video of the "awful" punch and called it a "well prepared punch to a completely innocent person."
Yoo has been one of the top juniors players in the world for years, winning the 2022 and 2024 U.S. Junior Championships (he didn't compete in 2023), becoming the youngest player to beat a player rated over 2700 when he beat Lê Quang Liêm as a 12-year-old, and beating Wesley So with the black pieces at the 2022 U.S. Championships as a 15-year-old. Before the fifth round of this year's tournament, Yoo was in a five-way tie for eighth place (last) with 1.5 points. He was paying very well against Caruana, earning a slight but serious advantage on the 13th move of the game when Caruana opted into a disadvantageous rook-bishop trade in order to open the game up. While not quite a gambit, Caruana's move was a provocation: This would be no quiet draw, and with both players having the space to make aggressive moves, Yoo would have to play superior attacking chess in order to get a result with white.
Yoo wasn't ready to work the position in his favor, and he quickly ran out of ideas, watching as his potential winning edge dissolved. The defending champion mounted an inspired attack, wrongfooting Yoo within 20 moves and forcing him to resign on the 48th move of the game. That's when Yoo tore up his scorecard and stormed out, before the alleged attack.
The result would have vaulted Caruana to the top of the leaderboard, though as it currently stands with the game voided, he remains in a three-way tie for first in the men's championships with Awonder Liang and Hans Niemann, who is playing despite the SLCC previously banning him from all tournaments for a year after he destroyed a hotel room during the 2023 championships. U.S. Chess said the previous four games involving Yoo would be voided, which most acutely impacts Caruana and Wesley So, who'd also beaten Yoo. Players scheduled to face Yoo will receive byes. In the women's bracket, Carissa Yip continues to dominate, holding a two-point lead after winning her first six games.
