Wesley So Beats Fabiano Caruana in the Playoff to Win His Fourth U.S. Championship
By Cameron W. · Fri, 23 Oct 2026
Wesley So had the U.S. Championship in his hands, watched it slip away on Wednesday, and took it back on Thursday beating Fabiano Caruana for the crown.
Wesley So had the U.S. Championship in his hands, watched it slip away on Wednesday, and took it back on Thursday. He beat defending champion Fabiano Caruana 1.5-0.5 in a two-game rapid playoff in Saint Louis to win his fourth national title, his first since 2021, and he ended Caruana's bid for a fifth straight crown.
A lead that vanished
It should have been a quiet finish. So went into the final round a full point clear, and a draw against Sam Sevian, who was last in the field, would have clinched the title outright. Instead, Sevian outplayed him in a heavy-piece endgame and won, and Caruana beat Awonder Liang the same afternoon to draw level on 7/11. So said he slept only two or three hours that night.
The playoff: a draw, then a win
The tiebreak was two rapid games at 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment, with more rapid and blitz games to follow if needed. They were not required. In Game 1, Caruana had White in a Nimzo-Indian and So reached a winning position as Black. Chess.com says he could have won on the spot with 34...Qd4+ followed by 35...Ra1, but the game turned messy. The reports differ on who had to scramble at the end, but they agree that both players were short of time and that the game was drawn.
Game 2 settled it. So, with White, went for a Scotch Four Knights, and Caruana answered with a risky gambit. Chess.com calls his pawn sacrifice in the opening dubious, and US Chess writes that he left his preparation early and landed in a bad position. So gave back the pawn, castled queenside and stalled briefly in his attack, then won a piece on move 22. Caruana created more counterplay than the commentary team expected, but his chances did not last. He resigned on move 33.
How So felt about it
So was not impressed with the quality of the playoff games. He called them poor on both sides, with many blunders, and said by the end he was nearly out of energy. He also credited Sevian, calling the tournament very tough for him. Asked by Chess Life how he would spend the night before, he joked, "Just feel sorry for myself 90 percent of the time." Caruana gave no comment in the reports reviewed, though Chess.com notes he was likely very tired.
What the win means
This is So's fourth title, after 2017, 2020 and 2021. Caruana won in 2016 and from 2022 to 2025, so he stays on five titles. The loss denies him the fifth straight win that ChessBase said would have matched Samuel Reshevsky's record, and the sixth overall that would have tied Walter Browne.
The prize comes to $56,000, according to Chess.com and US Chess, which describes it as $49,000 for first place plus a $7,000 winner's bonus. That does not match the $55,000 first-place figure Chess.com gave earlier in the event, and the reports reviewed do not explain the difference. In the women's section, Rachael Li had already won the title outright on Wednesday.
Sources
- 2026 U.S. Chess Championship Playoffs: Wesley So Wins 4th U.S. Chess Championship (Chess.com)
- Wesley So Wins 2026 U.S. Championship (US Chess)
- U.S. Championship Playoff: So Wins (Dennis Monokroussos, The Chess Mind)
- Wesley So wins 4th US Chess Championship (Manila Times)
- Saint Louis Chess Club announcement on X
- 2026 U.S. Chess Championship Round 11 (Chess.com)
