For the third time in his career, Wesley So has won the elite Sinquefield Cup tournament in St Louis, the fifth and final leg of the Grand Chess Tour. He got off to a strong start, with an early win against Jorden Van Foreest who botched a drawn rook endgame, and followed that by beating tournament favourite Caruana, in the superb counterattacking game shown below.
Fabiano Caruana-Wesley So
Sinquefield Cup, August 2026
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 a3 Bxc3+ 5 bxc3 c5 6 f3 Nc6 7 e4 d6 8 Ne2 O-O 9 Ng3 b6 10 Be2 Ba6 11 O-O Rc8 12 f4 cxd4 13 cxd4 Na5 14 f5 h6 (see diagram) 15 e5 After the queen exchange, Black’s position becomes easier to play. 15 Rf4!? was worth considering, to swing the rook over to h4 with an attack. dxe5 16 dxe5 Qxd1 17 Rxd1 Nh7 18 Bd2 Nb3 19 Rab1 Nxd2 20 Rxd2 Bxc4 21 Bxc4 Rxc4 22 Rd7 Ra4 23 Rb4 Caruana pins his hope on kingside tricks, presumably judging that 23 Rb3 Ng5 would lead only to a slow defeat, Rxa3 24 Rg4 Ra1+! Nimble! 25 Kf2 Ra5 26 f6 26 Nh5 Ng5 27 f6 g6 28 Nf4 Rxe5 29 h4 Ne4+! shows one virtue of the finesse at move 24, dragging the king to f2. g5 27 Re4 Rc8 28 h4 Nf8 29 Rb7 Ng6 30 hxg5 Rc2+ 31 Kg1 Raa2 The counterattack lands first. 32 Rb8+ Kh7 33 Rb7 hxg5 34 Rxf7+ Kh6 35 Nf1 Rxg2+ 36 Kh1 Rgf2 37 Kg1 Nh4 White resigns
After that, he was ruthlessly efficient. He steered his remaining White games towards dead draws, saying ‘I’m not proud of [them], but it’s part of a bigger strategy, and it worked.’ With Black he defended patiently to achieve the same result, and never looked in danger. In such a tight field his two wins and seven draws sufficed for a share of first place, where he was joined by Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who took a more adventurous route to the same score (+3, -1, =5).
So maintained that conservative approach in the rapid playoff games, which were both drawn, leaving the winner to be decided in an ‘armageddon’ blitz game. Praggnanandhaa played White with extra time at the start, while So had the Black pieces and draw odds, but landed in desperate trouble in the middlegame.
R. Praggnanandhaa–Wesley So
Sinquefield Cup Playoff, August 2026
In the diagram, Praggnanandhaa chose the natural 28 e4 to secure the bishop, which threw away a large part of his advantage, whereas 28 Ne4!! would have won on the spot. For example, 28…Bxd5 29 Nf6+ Kg7 30 Nxd7 Qxd7 31 Rxc5 wins, or 28…Qe5 29 Bxb7! wins (since the Ne4 also defends the Rd2). So skirted with defeat later in the game too, but it was Draw agreed at move 85, which is what he needed for tournament victory.
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