Fabiano Caruana commented on Sam Sevian’s statement about Wesley So. Caruana calls Wesley a very good defender. Fabiano notes that Sam managed to put pressure on So at the US Chess Championships 2026. Caruana spoke about it in a conversation with Cristian Chirila on the C-Squared Podcast.

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana

World's No. 3

“[Cristian Chirila: Wesley is not the tricky type of player. Or at least it doesn’t feel that he’s a tricky type of player in Classical. He’s generally a super solid guy who just knows a lot.]

I think he’s both a very solid player. But when he gets into bad situations, he can be very tricky. He’s certainly a very good defender. Among the best.

Wesley, like everyone, has some things where he’s less good at and some things where he’s better at. I would say defensive abilities is definitely among his strengths. Along with tactical vision. Which goes together hand in hand with defensive abilities.

If you are good tactically, like Hikaru, for example, like Wesley, like Magnus, you tend to be a good defender. If you point to some faults, it might be that he can struggle to create winning chances sometimes.

But he has definitely more strengths than weaknesses and he’s having a tremendous year. And of course, the chance that he loses any singular game, even with the Black pieces, even against the player he struggles against, like Sam, is low.

But Sam put pressure on him, let him go at some moment and then eventually collected the point.”

The US Chess Championship 2026 took place from October 9 to 22, at the Saint Louis Chess Club in Missouri, USA. Sam Sevian was in last place with 0 wins. Wesley So needed to not lose his game in the last round to win the tournament. Sam defeated Wesley in 67 moves. So made a critical Inaccuracy and lost a significant advantage. Wesley did not manage to recover and resigned.

Sam Sevian commented on his victory over Wesley. Sevian said that Wesley is good at setting up tricks in fast time controls. Sam noted that he found a way to play against Wesley in Classical.

Credit: Lennart Ootes