The American excelled on home ice at the first leg of the International Skating Union's Grand Prix of Figure Skating season.

Chen, crowned world champion in Milan this year and an Olympic bronze medallist in the team event at Pyeongchang 2018, led after the short programme at the Winds Arena in Everett in Washington.

In today's free routine he scored 189.99 points to confirm a winning tally of 280.57 overall.

His display included a quadruple Lutz, a quad toe-triple toe, a quad toe-double toe-double loop, a triple Axel and four more triple jumps.

"I'm happy with today's skate, definitely a lot of improvement from my last competition and that's really my goal throughout the seasons - just keep on improving from competition to competition," the 19-year-old said. 

"In terms of the number of quads, the programme was definitely watered down, but I think that in terms of where I am at in the season right now, it's definitely perfect.

"I'm looking to add more, but at the same time build on everything else."

Czech skater Michal Brezina maintained his second place from overnight to win the silver medal but was someway behind Chen on 239.51.

The American's win is the largest in the 16 years the current points system has been in operation.

Sergei Voronov of Russia moved up one spot to earn the bronze on 226.44, as Malaysia's Julian Zhi Jie Yee dropped to seventh.

Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov also maintained their midpoint lead to capture the pairs title.

The Russians, the world silver medallists, landed a triple twist, a triple toe-double toe-double toe combination, a throw triple loop and difficult lifts.

There were a couple of errors in their free routine but their score of 204.85 was still enough to win.

"Today we skated a little bit better than yesterday and at the Finlandia Trophy," Tarasova said. 

"We started enjoying the programme today."

Russia also won silver as Alisa Efimova and Alexander Korovin held their overnight position to finish on 178.98.

Americans Ashley Cain and Timothy Leduc jumped up from fourth into bronze on 175.06, as yesterday's third-place finishers Minerva-Fabienne Hase and Nolan Seegert of Germany fell out of the medals to fifth.

Today also saw the women's and ice dance events open with the short and rhythm dance sections respectively. 

Japan's world bronze medallist Satoko Miyahara leads in the women's competition, tallying a score of 73.86.

Her compatriot Kaori Sakamoto, the Four Continents champion, sits in silver medal position on 71.29 with Russia's newcomer Sofia Samodurova third on 64.41.

Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue raised hopes of a second home American title by grabbing the ice dance lead.

They collected 78.43 points and lead despite losing points for a costume failure.

Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri finished second with Tiffani Zagorski and Jonathan Guerreiro of Russia third on 75.01 and 73.30 points respectively.

The women's and ice dance events will conclude tomorrow.