So bows to world No.2 Aronian, drops to fourth

MANILA, Philippines - Top seed Armenian Levon Aronian pounced on Filipino GM Wesley So’s faulty handling of the English Opening to fashion out a 36-move victory and pad his lead in the sixth round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, the Netherlands Saturday night.

Aronian, toting a 2812 rating, outplayed So (2719) in the opening and kept the initiative to the endgame that saw him sacrifice a pawn to win the exchange several moves later en route to the win.

When So resigned on the 36th, he was left with a piece down, a weak back rank and a cramped kingside.

The 31-year-old Aronian, a former world, rapid, blitz and Cup champion and the spearhead of the Armenian national team that struck gold in the 2006, 2008 and 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Turin, Dresden and Istanbul, thus stretched his lead from half-point to a full point with five points after six games.

Dutch Anish Giri, who drew with the fourth-seeded Gelfand in their marathon 66-move duel of a Gruenfeld, and Russian Sergey Karjakin, who outlasted German Arkadij Naiditsch in 76 moves of a King’s Indian Attack, jumped to a share of second with four points.

The loss dropped So to a share of fourth with No. 3 Fabiano Caruana of Italy and No. 6 Leinier Dominguez of Cuba, who split the point with No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura of the US and Pentala Harikrishna of India, at 3.5 points.

So’s coach, Susan Polgar, said the defeat will be a learning experience for her student.