Fabiano Caruana commented on his first day at the Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2026. Caruana says that he didn’t play well and was losing drawn positions. Fabiano notes that he played poorly on the first day at the 2025 edition of the event.

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana

World's No. 3

“I didn’t play too well on the first day… At least I won this one game from a bad position. I was kind of saving all the losing positions and losing all the dead drawn positions…

Also, last year I had a pretty poor first day, but then second day was pretty good. So hopefully that will be the case again!”

The Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown 2026 takes place from October 27 to 29, at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, USA. Fabiano Caruana lost to Hikaru Nakamura and Praggnanandhaa R on the first day of the event. Caruana is in 3rd place with 2.5 points.

Credit: Lennart Ootes