MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American super grandmaster Wesley So played solid chess to beat top-ranked chess grandmasters at the 2026 Sinquefield Cup, one of the biggest yearly chess tournaments.
A highlight of the tournament was when So defeated fellow American and world number two, Fabiano Caruana in Round 3.
So pounced on an early mistake by Caruana by exchanging Queens, enabling So to activate his Knight, exchanged it for a long-range Bishop, won two pawns to establish a pawn majority on the Queen-side.
Caruana counter-attacked and even managed to open up the Black King's position, but resigned to So's coordinated attack by two Rooks and a Knight in the endgame.
Earlier in Round 2, So dominated Dutch Grandmaster Jorden Van Foreest with aggressive play, again, trading Queens quite early in the game. Van Foreest, playing the Black pieces, tried to ward off So's attacks, but later ended up with three pawns against So's four. After more pawn trades, it was one pawn against two. So cut-off Van Foreest's King and then advanced his pawn toward promotion. Van Foreest resigned.
With two victories secured, So played more solid and safe in the next rounds. He reaped draws which was enough to maintain his lead.
So led for most of the tournament, until in Round 8, Indian superstar Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa caught up with him.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa had just won the Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz Tournament a week prior.
An “Armageddon” or “final battle” ensued between the two, where So prevailed.
Another prominent grandmaster participating in the tournament was Uzbekistan’s hero Javokhir Sindarov, who will challenge reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju from India, for the World Chess Championship in November.
Other Americans in the tournament were Sam Sevian and former world number two Levon Aronian.
The roster is completed by German number one Vincent Keymer, French number two Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Dutch top masters Jordeen Van Foreest and Anish Giri. All are vying for top spots in the big tournament with a total prize fund of $475,000.
The Sinquefield Cup is a 10-player, 9-round single round-robin classical tournament. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the remainder of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one.
So is the defending champion, having won the prestigious tournament in 2016 and 2025.
He also won his first Sinquefield Cup in 2016 without any losses, and facing former World Champions Vishy Anand and Veselin Topalov. DIOSDADO LUNA
