So sinks Ukrainian in W Cup

MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So crushed Ukrainian Alexander Ipatov’s Petroff Defense in 45 moves to move within a draw from advancing to the second round of the FIDE World Chess Cup, which got under way Sunday night in Tromso, Norway.

So, ranked No. 32 in the world with a rating of 2713, surprised Ipatov with an early pawn attack anchored on his bishops, seizing a pawn advantage in the middle game which he translated into a full point over last year’s World Juniors champion.

The 19-year-old So, who plays for US NCAA Division I and Susan Polgar-coached Webster U, needs only a draw in their second match to move into the next round against the winner between French Laurent Fressinet and American Larry Christiansen.

Fressinet downed Christiansen in 42 moves of their Ruy Lopez showdown to likewise gain the headway.

But while So went on a strong start, compatriot GMs Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua lost their respective games, needing to bounce back in their second matches to force a two-game playoff with lesser time and increment.

Barbosa tried to squeeze his way out of a cramped position but had no answer to Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem’s sacrificial attack and fell in 43 moves of Slav game.

Paragua, the third Filipino player in the 128-player field, blew an early positional advantage and lost to Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia in marathon 67 moves of the Bastrikov Variation of a super-sharp Sicilian game.

Jakovenko had a bishop and a pawn against Paragua’s two pawns, including a passed pawn on the b-file, which can easily be neutralized, when Paragua resigned.

So, Barbosa and Paragua are vying for the two berths to the Candidates Matches that will determine the world champion in the current cycle. 

GM Eugene Torre made it to the quarterfinals of the 1983 Candidates Matches but lost to Hungarian GM Zoltan Ribli.

In other results, the fancied bets all hurdled their first round games with top seed Levon Aronian of Armenia beating Mikhail Markov of Uzbekistan, No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of Italy dismantling G. Akash of India, third seed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia toppling Zambia’s Gillan Bwalya, No. 4 Alexander Grischuk of Russia downing Australian Igor Bjelobrk, fifth ranked Sergey Karjakin, also of Russia, dominating Morocco’s Ali Shebbar, No. 6 Hiraku Nakamura of the US trouncing Peru’s Deysi Cori, and seventh seed Boris Gelfand of Israel downing Bangladeshi Ziaur Rahman.