Wesley So places joint 2nd behind Caruana in US Chess, bags P1.9M

MANILA, Philippines – Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So drew their 11th round and final game on Tuesday, October 17 (Wednesday, October 18, Philippine time) and finished 1-2 in the 2023 US Chess Championship at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri.

Living up to his No.1 seeding, Caruana had his crown secured by the 10th round when he trounced new sensation Abhimanyu Mishra and moved out of reach of So and Leinier Dominguez.

Caruana wound up unbeaten with 8.5 points to bag the $60,000 top purse and match So’s three titles in the annual event.

The Bacoor, Cavite-born So also finished the 12-man tournament unbeaten, but only had two wins over Mishra and Ray Robson to tally 6.5 points.

It was the same score posted by Dominguez and Mishra, who closed out a strong performance with a victory over the veteran Levon Aronian.

So, the 2017, 2020, and 2021 champion, will share the runner-up reward with Dominguez and the 14-year-old Mishra, the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster at 12. They will divide the second, third, and fourth prizes, which will be worth $35,000 (P1.98 million) each.

Based on the results, Caruana, also the 2016 titlist, So and Dominguez will again qualify for Team USA, with Mishra slated to make his first appearance.

With Caruana, absentee Hikaru Nakamura and So at the helm, Team USA topped the 2016 Baku (Azerbaijan) Chess Olympiad. – Rappler.com