US Chess Championship playoffs: Wesley So beats Caruana 1.5–0.5

Wesley So won his fourth US Chess Championship by beating defending champion Fabiano Caruana 1.5–0.5 in a two-game rapid playoff, according to Chess.com’s October 22 report. So drew the first game and won the second in the faster format used to break the title tie.

The playoff followed a reversal in the final round the previous day: So lost to Sam Sevian, while Caruana won his game to reach the tiebreak. So said he slept only two or three hours after the defeat. He had previously won the national title in 2017, 2020 and 2021.

A missed win, then a decisive capture

In the opening rapid game, So played Black and reached a winning position, according to Chess.com’s analysis. He missed a sequence of queen and rook moves that could have settled the game. Caruana then held a draw in the endgame despite having one fewer pawn, leaving the players level.

So had White in game two. Caruana sacrificed a pawn in the opening, but So later returned it and castled on the queenside—a move that shifts the king and a rook together. Both players then advanced pawns on opposite sides of the board.

Chess.com identified So’s capture of a piece on move 22 as the decisive turning point. So went on to win the second game, ending the playoff and securing the championship without another tiebreak.