Wesley So tops Sinquefield Cup after 3-way playoff, bags P4.4 million

MANILA, Philippines, August 29 ------ Wesley So won on demand then proved his mettle in the three-way playoff to snatch the 2025 Sinquefield Cup crown at the Vue 17 University Club Tower in St. Louis, United States. The Bacoor, Cavite-born So prevailed over Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the ninth and final round to catch up with Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and American No. 1 Fabiano Caruana, who settled for draws against Levon Aronian and world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, respectively, at 5.5 points and force the round-robin decider.

Praggnanandhaa bested Caruana in the first extra game but yielded to So in the second. Although with the clear advantage, So settled for a draw via perpetual check against Caruana in the third game to regain the title he last held in 2016 and bag the $77,667 (about P4.4 million) top purse.

His first major tournament victory this year catapulted So back in the world top 10, vaulting to 7th from 12th in the FIDE (World Chess Federation) live rating with Elo 2755.7. “It’s a great feeling to win the Sinquefield Cup again,” said So, a three-time United States champion who recalled the nine years it took him to reclaim the title. It was a come-from-behind triumph for So, who drew his first six games before trouncing Gukesh in the seventh round and agreeing to a truce with Praggnanandhaa in the eighth.

Trailing Praggnanandhaa and Caruana, So handled white in dominating fashion to trounce Abdusattorov in their Italian Game: Two Knights Defense, Canal Variation encounter, and finished with a performance rating of 2831. Aronian wound up fourth with 4.0 points, towing 3.5 pointers Jan-Krzysztof Duda, wildcard Sam Sevian, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Gukesh landed eighth, dethroned champion Alireza Firouzja ninth, and Abdusattorov 10th in the concluding classical leg of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour.

Source: rappler.com