By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Grandmaster Wesley So captured his maiden title by edging fellow American Levon Aronian, 1.5-0.5 in the two-game grand finals of the 2026 American Cup on Wednesday, March 11 (Thursday, March 12, Philippine time) in Saint Louis, Missouri.
The Cavite-born So won their first game after 42 moves of an Italian Opening before sealing the win with a draw in Game 2 to secure the match victory.
The triumph earned So a $90,000 (roughly P5.3 million) cash purse, including $15,000 bracket bonus.
“It doesn’t happen often that I win a big tournament, so it’s really unbelievable,” So told chess.com.
Prior to his victory over Aronian, So defeated GM Fabiano Caruana in the final, GM Sam Sevian in the semifinal, and GM Ray Robson in the quarterfinal, all with identical 2.51-1.5 scores.
It was also So’s second tournament victory of the year after winning the 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Open Blitz in January.
Up next for So will be the Grenke Chess Festival 2026.
