Fabiano Caruana commented on his performance in the playoff at the US Chess Championship 2026. Caruana says that his Rapid play has significantly worsened over the past year. Fabiano notes that he was lucky to survive the first game of the playoff.

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana

World's No. 3

“I was happy for us to play the playoff. But I didn’t play very well. Probably it also was a bad opening choice in the second game. Also, in the first game I was pretty fortunate to survive…

To be honest, my Rapid play this year has been pretty bad. It was going well last year. At some point, I had this nice run in the Grand Chess Tour in St. Louis Rapid & Blitz. And then I lost this last round.

And since then, it’s been downhill. I think I’ve lost about 90 points in a year. My Rapid play… I don’t know what’s been going on. I haven’t been able to find my form.”

The US Chess Championship 2026 took place from October 9 to 22, at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, USA. Fabiano Caruana lost to Wesley So with a score of 0.5-1.5 in the playoff. Fabiano won $51,500 for second place in the event. Wesley stopped Caruana’s streak of four consecutive US Championship titles.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE