GM Wesley So won his maiden title in The American Cup 2026 on Wednesday. After winning the first game against GM Levon Aronian the previous day, he held the necessary draw in game two to secure the match. He makes $75,000 plus another $15,000 bonus for winning the Champions Final.
In The Women’s American Cup 2026, IM Carissa Yip won twice on demand in the blitz playoffs, then finally won the match against IM Alice Lee in armageddon tiebreaks. They will play a second match, the Grand Final Reset, on Thursday.Â
The Grand Final Reset will feature two rapid games, followed by blitz playoffs if needed. That will be on Thursday, March 12, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET / 18:10 CET / 11:40 p.m. IST.
Grand Finals:
Open Grand Final: So Wraps It Up
So didn’t lose a match in this year’s event and lost just a single game out of the 14 he played. On his way to tournament victory, he defeated GMs Ray Robson, Sam Sevian, Fabiano Caruana, and finally Aronian.
Aronian 0.5-1.5 So
This year’s result can be read as poetic justice for So, who finished as runner-up behind Aronian in the 2024. This year, their positions have reversed.
Frankly, the hard work—and the fireworks—took place on the previous day. The champion’s job in game two was to hold a draw, and So convincingly did that in the Italian Opening. Aronian never got a chance and agreed to a repetition of moves, the game ending on move 33.
Aronian was most critical of his move 15.b3?!, and both players said that White should have gone for the f4-pawn break sooner. Aronian said, “I kind of liked my position, but then I started playing really, really weird moves,” and if anyone was playing for more than a draw by the end, GM Maurice Ashley commented it should be Black. A draw was good enough for So, of course.
Aronian said, “I made many ridiculous decisions throughout the tournament, but it’s okay, I’m rusty. I just need to play more and get back into shape.” So, on the other hand, was full of praise for Aronian, calling him “one of the best chess players to ever live.” He also shared that Aronian was a bit sick during the match—mentioning an unusual detail: “He got bit by a dog the other day.”
For So, this is the second tournament victory of the year, after the 2026 Tata Steel Chess India Open Blitz in January. It hasn’t been too long since he’s won a tournament in St. Louis either, as he won the 2025 Sinquefield Cup last August.
So’s next tournament will be the Grenke Chess Festival 2026, which will feature the Chess960 chess variant (also known as Freestyle Chess), on April 2-6 in Karlsruhe, Germany. It will take place at the same time as the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. He said modestly, “It doesn’t happen often that I win a big tournament, so it’s really unbelievable.”
It doesn’t happen often that I win a big tournament, so it’s really unbelievable.
—Wesley So
Women’s Grand Final: Yip Keeps Coming Back
If the first match was a quick day at the office, the other certainly did not disappoint. After making a draw in the classical game, the Women’s match went all the way to armageddon tiebreaks.
Yip won, but because she came from the Elimination Bracket, she will have to win a second match on Thursday.
Lee 3-4 Yip
The classical game featured an exciting opening—Yip played the Hippopotamus—but it ultimately dried up and ended in a rook endgame. The players were off to blitz playoffs, and every subsequent game would be decisive.
For two sets of playoffs, the pattern was the same: Lee won the first game and lost the second. Yip got a winning advantage in the first game, then had to bail out with a draw, but ultimately hung a bishop in one move.
“After game one, when I just like hung a piece, I was pretty mad,” said Yip, and she stormed back with a win on demand in the second game—with the black pieces.
Lee again won the first game of the next set, delivering a tiny queen sacrifice to force the checkmate…
… but completely collapsed in the next one, getting positionally outplayed before she hung a central pawn on d5. “Honestly, I was giggling a little that we made it to armageddon,” commented Yip, who got the black pieces and two minutes (with draw odds) against Lee with three minutes, plus a two-second increment starting on move one.
Lee could demonstrate no lasting advantage against the Modern Defense, and in an equal endgame, Yip even went on to win after slamming 42…Bxb3 down on the board.
Yip has won the first match and surely leaves with momentum on her side—the wind at her back, so to speak—but the slate starts clean on Thursday. Each player has won a match against the other, and the Grand Final Reset will be the third match they play.
Yip told us what to expect on Thursday: “Hopefully I’ll show some good chess and, if not, at least I brought it to the rapid, that’s something!”
How To Review
The American Cup 2026, which takes place from March 3 to 12 in St. Louis, brings together the United States’ strongest players to battle in a high-stakes double-elimination knockout bracket across classical and rapid time controls. There is an open tournament and a women’s tournament, with the two time controls of 90+30 and 25+10 (with 3+2 blitz and potential armageddon as tiebreakers). The prize fund is $250,000 in the open and $150,000 in the women’s.
Previous coverage:
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- Day 8: Wesley So Scores In 1st Game, Lee & Yip Stay Deadlocked
- Day 7: Aronian, Yip Advance To Grand Finals Vs. Wesley So, Lee
- Day 6: Wesley So, Alice Lee Reach Grand Finals
- Day 5: Caruana Wins Game 1 Vs. Wesley So; Dominguez, Sevian, Tang, Li Eliminated
- Day 4: So Vs. Caruana, Yip Vs. Lee In Champions Finals
- Day 3: Robson, Mishra, Krush, Zatonskih Eliminated On Day 3
- Day 2: Liang Beats Aronian, Tang Reverses Match Vs. Krush In Early Upsets
- Day 1: Caruana Scores 1st Win In Open; Krush, Lee Lead In Women’s