Three Pawns Break Through: So Beats Woodward and Leads the U.S. Championship by a Point

Photo: Frans Peeters from Roosendaal, The Netherlands / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Only kings and pawns were left on the board. Andy Woodward's king stepped to d6, and Wesley So pushed a pawn to c5 with check. Four moves later, So had a passed pawn, and the black king had to run all the way across the board to catch it.

So beat Woodward in 52 moves in Round 8 of the 2026 U.S. Championship in Saint Louis on Saturday, 17 October. It was his second endgame win in two days, after he beat Ray Robson in a bishop ending on Friday. So now has 6 points out of 8 and leads by a full point. Fabiano Caruana is second with 5. On Monday, after a rest day, So plays Caruana.

The puzzle

Here is the moment that decided the game. It is White to move, on move 38. Every piece except the kings is gone. White has three pawns against two on the queenside. How does White make a passed pawn, a pawn that no enemy pawn can stop? The answer is at the end.

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White to move. Find the pawn move that breaks through on the queenside.

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The Game: So vs Woodward, Round 8

Wesley So 1-0 Andy Woodward, 2026 U.S. Championship, Saint Louis, Round 8, 17 October 2026.

Queens off early, and a broken pawn chain

The game began 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4, the Ragozin Defence, where Black pins the knight on c3 straight away. 5.Qb3 c5 6.dxc5 Nc6 7.Bg5 Qa5 8.Bxf6 dxc4 9.Qxc4 gxf6. Black took back toward the center with the g-pawn, and now had two pawns on the f-file. Two pawns of the same color on one file are called doubled pawns.

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After 9...gxf6. Black has pawns on f7 and f6. Doubled pawns cannot guard each other.

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10.Rc1 Qxc5 11.Qh4 Ke7 12.g3 Bxc3+ 13.Rxc3 Qb4 14.Qxb4+ Nxb4. The queens came off on move 14. With no queens left, Black's king was safe on e7, close to the center where it would be useful later.

15.a3 Nc6 16.Bg2 Bd7 17.Kd2 Rhd8 18.Rhc1 Rac8 19.Ne1 Ne5 20.Nd3 Rxc3 21.Rxc3 Bc6 22.Bxc6 Nxc6 23.Rc5 Ne5 24.b4 b6 25.Rc7+ Rd7 26.Rc8 f5 27.a4 Nxd3 28.exd3 e5 29.Ke3 Rd4 30.Rc4 Rxc4 31.dxc4. One piece after another came off the board. After 31.dxc4, only kings and pawns were left.

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After 31.dxc4. White has three pawns against two on the queenside. Black has four against three on the kingside, but two of them are the doubled f-pawns.

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A level ending with a hidden problem

Our Stockfish 17.1 engine rated this position about equal. Both sides have six pawns. White has more pawns on the queenside, and Black has more on the kingside. Each side would love to turn its extra pawn into a passed pawn.

Here is the difference. White's three queenside pawns are on three different files, a, b and c, so they can work together. Black's four kingside pawns include the two f-pawns from move 9. Doubled pawns cannot protect each other, and they find it hard to make a passed pawn.

31...Kd6 32.Kd3 f6 33.Kc3 Kc6 34.Kb3 Kd6 35.Kc2 Kc7 36.Kc3 Kc6. Both kings walked back and forth, each waiting for the other to make a mistake. Woodward had used a lot of time earlier in the game. From move 33 to move 42 he had about a minute or less on his clock for each move, with 30 seconds added after every move. So had about half an hour at that point.

The quiet move and the breakthrough

So now played 37.h4, a quiet pawn move on the other side of the board. Our engine needed a very deep search, to depth 33, to see what it did. At that depth it rated 37.h4 as winning for White, while its next best moves only kept the game level. After 37.h4, every Black reply it found lost.

Woodward played 37...Kd6, and that gave So the puzzle position. 38.c5+ came with check, because a pawn on c5 attacks d6. 38...bxc5 39.b5 Kd5 40.a5 c4 41.b6. White gave up one pawn to get the other two moving.

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After 41.b6. If Black takes with the a-pawn, White takes back with the a-pawn, and the pawn on b6 is passed.

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41...axb6 42.axb6 Kc6 43.Kxc4. The b-pawn was passed, and the white king had won the c4 pawn too.

The decoy

43...f4 44.gxf4 exf4 45.b7 Kxb7. So pushed the b-pawn to b7. If it reached b8, it would become a queen, so the black king had to go back for it. A piece that is pulled away like this is called a decoy.

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After 45...Kxb7. Black is a pawn up, but the black king is on b7, far from the kingside, and the white king is much closer.

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Black was now a pawn up. But the black king was far away on b7, and the white king was ready to march to the kingside and eat the black pawns. 46.Kd5 f3 47.Ke6 Kc6 48.Kxf6 Kd5 49.Kf5 h5 50.Kf4 Ke6 51.Kxf3 Kf5 52.Ke3, and Woodward resigned.

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The final position. White has an extra f-pawn, and our engine rates it as a win for White.

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What to Learn from Wesley So

1. Count the pawns on each side. In a pawn ending, look at where the pawns are. Three against two on one side of the board can make a passed pawn. So's three queenside pawns were the winning plan.

2. Doubled pawns are weaker than they look. Black had four kingside pawns against three, but two of them were on the f-file, and they could not make a passed pawn quickly.

3. Watch out for checks. On d6, the black king could be attacked by a pawn on c5. That check let So break through before Black could do anything else.

4. Use a decoy to pull the king away. 45.b7 cost a pawn, but it dragged the black king to b7. Then the white king ate the kingside pawns.

Puzzle answer

38.c5+. After 38...bxc5 39.b5 and 40.a5, the a-pawn and b-pawn are two against one, and 41.b6 makes a passed pawn. Our engine rates 38.c5+ as winning for White. Its next best moves, like 38.Kc2 and 38.Kb3, only keep the game level.

Standings after Round 8

So 6, Caruana 5, Liang 4.5, Oparin 4.5, Woodward 4.5, Xiong 4.5, Mishra 4, Aronian 3.5, Shankland 3.5, Niemann 3, Robson 3, Sevian 2.

What Monday means: Caruana vs So

Sunday, 18 October, is a rest day. In Round 9 on Monday, 19 October, Caruana has the white pieces against So. Caruana is the defending champion and has won this title five times. So has won it three times, in 2017, 2020 and 2021. There are three rounds left, so this game can change the race a lot.

• If So wins, he has 7 and Caruana stays on 5, with two rounds left. One more point from his last two games would make So sure of first place.
• If they draw, So has 6.5 and Caruana 5.5. So keeps his one-point lead with two rounds to go.
• If Caruana wins, both players have 6 with two rounds to go, and the race starts again.

If two or more players finish tied for first after Round 11, they play a playoff on 22 October. So's last two games are against Hans Niemann and Sam Sevian. Caruana plays Jeffery Xiong and Awonder Liang.

Woodward's big win earlier in this event: Woodward beats Caruana in Round 5. So's first win: So beats Jeffery Xiong in Round 2.