GM Fabiano Caruana won Titled Tuesday on October 13 during an off day in the 2026 U.S. Championship—where he currently shares the tournament lead—defeating GM Nihal Sarin in a key 10th-round matchup. Caruana then only made a draw in the final round, but it was enough for outright victory on 9.5 points after an assist from GM Hikaru Nakamura, who defeated Nihal in the last round to finish second on tiebreaks with nine points. Nihal came in third.

Broadcast

In case you missed it, here's this week's broadcast with GM Robert Hess:

Recap

Nihal dominated the storyline for much of the tournament. With an even $5,000 on the line for anyone who could manage a perfect score, Nihal was in line for nine rounds. All of the eventual top three finishers were among the 17 players to begin 4/4, as were all of the previous four Titled Tuesday winners: GM Sina Movahed from four weeks ago, GM Alireza Firouzja from three, two-week-ago winner GM Wesley So (who like Caruana, but not Nakamura, is playing in the U.S. Championship), and last week's winner GM Vladislav Artemiev.

Only five of the 17 made it to 5/5, among them being Nihal, Movahed, and So. The others were GM Rohith Krishna and, as perhaps the most surprising name, FM Behzad Salimiyan, who crushed Firouzja to get there. Salimiyan would go on to finish 35th, enough for this week's under-16 prize.

By the end of round six, Nihal stood alone on 100 percent, taking down Salimiyan to do it with two thematic bishop moves to e5. The other three players who had been on 5/5 all drew, Movahed and So against each other and Rohith against Nakamura.

Nihal stayed on a perfect 7/7 by toppling Movahed in the next round, while GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's "great endgame technique" (Hess) made him one of two on 6.5/7, along with GM Daniil Dubov after defeating So. Elsewhere, Caruana became one of 13 players on 6/7 after winning on time with 0.7 seconds remaining himself in an otherwise hopeless position.

Nihal would extend his perfect run to eight games and his lead to a full point in the ensuing round, overrunning Vachier-Lagrave enough positionally to induce resignation after 32 moves, while Dubov ended up repeating moves with Nakamura. The top players chasing Nihal were now Artemiev, Caruana, Dubov, GM Alexey Sarana, and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.

Coming out of the break, it was now Sarana's turn to try to ebb Nihal's tide, and while a knight sacrifice made things interesting, he couldn't get it done, leaving Nihal two rounds from two grand for first place and the enticing extra five for perfection. Meanwhile, Artemiev and Dubov made a draw without fanfare, and Caruana continued "stretching his luck" by "stealing a victory from the jaws of defeat" (Hess) against Praggnanandhaa. Unlike two rounds earlier, Caruana at least had the advantage on the board as well by the time his opponent flagged.

The upshot of those results was an all-important Nihal vs. Caruana matchup in round 10. With Nihal on nine points, Caruana on eight, and no one else with more than 7.5, a Nihal victory would freeroll him for the bounty in round 11—the chance to play for a win with no risk, as first place would already be guaranteed. A Caruana win, meanwhile, could create not a freeroll but a free-for-all.

Time ended up playing the key factor, and in a reversal of what you might expect knowing only that and the names of the players, the advantage went to Caruana. Early on, while also trading off three sets of pieces with the better pawn structure, he developed an advantage on the clock as well. Caruana never gained a true advantage, and it was only Nihal who ended up generating winning chances on the board, but by the time he did he only had 2.7 seconds left on his clock against 58 for Caruana. Nihal was able to make 19 more moves in that time, but his clock finally hit triple zeroes.

Nobody on 7.5/9 won in the 10th round, leaving a 12-way tie for third place behind Nihal and Caruana entering the last round, where Nihal would get Black against Nakamura and Caruana White against Movahed. Both trailing players blundered, but neither leader was able to take advantage. By the time Caruana lost his advantage, however, he was in another enviable time situation, with Hess describing his performance as "anti-Fabi chess. He is playing for the flag; he is playing quickly." Ultimately, it was enough for a draw, but that was ultimately enough to win the tournament, as Nihal ended up losing both half-points against Nakamura.

That was extremely significant, of course, especially as Caruana's tiebreaks trailed three of the players a half-point below him in the standings. But below him in the standings they were, and so Caruana had his first Titled Tuesday win since February 17. After Nakamura and Nihal in the next two spots, tiebreaks sorted the remaining players on nine points into So, Artemiev, GM Dmitry Andreikin, GM Sergei Zhigalko, and FM Artin Ashraf.

Final Standings

Prize Table

*Bounty grows by $250 per week without a perfect score, and resets once a perfect score has been achieved.

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