So forces 59-move draw, advances

MANILA, Philippines - The standoff was all So needed to join the fancied bets in the next round as the Filipino champion finished off Ipatov, 1.5-0.5 following his 45-move victory in their first game Sunday.

So, 19, actually found himself in a tough, cramped position in their second match, needing to give up a rook for a knight and a pawn to fend off the Ukrainian-born GM’s strong kingside attack.

The 20-year-old Ipatov, however, failed to translate that advantage to victory and force a two-game tiebreaker as So dug deep to neutralize last year’s World Juniors champion to escape with a draw.

So, ranked No. 32 in the world with a 2711.6 rating and the second youngest in the elite 128-player group, will take on the winner between Russian Evgeny Tomashevsky and American Alejandro Ramirez, who were playing a tiebreaker after a 1-1 standoff.

So reached the fourth round of this event four years ago when he beat former World Challenger Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and many-time US top board player Gata Kamsky before losing to Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov.

The two other Filipino bets, however, fell by the wayside as GMs Oliver Barbosa and Mark Paragua got swept by Vietnamese Le Quang Liem and Russian Dimitry Jakovenko, a former World Cup quarterfinalist, respectively.

Needing no less than a victory, Barbosa, 26, failed to rebound as Le launched another strong kingside attack, forcing the Filipino to give up three pawns before resigning on the 32nd of their Symmetrical Variation of their Queen’s Pawn Game.

Jakovenko also hammered Paragua’s King’s Indian defense with a Six Pawns Attack variation and notched the victory on the 35th with connected central passed pawns.

The tournament stakes two slots in the Candidates Matches for the current cycle.

Fancied Judith Polgar of Hungary, Andrei Volokitin and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia fell to Cuban GM Isan Reynaldo Ortiz, 0.5-1.5, American Ray Jobson, 0-2, and 14-year-old Chinese GM Wei Yi, .5-1.5, respectively, in the event’s big reversals.