So downs American GM, grabs solo lead in US chessfest

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So waylaid American Grandmaster Alex Yermolinsky in just 21 moves in a Bishop's variation of a Queen's Gambit Declined Sunday to seize the solo lead in the 24th North American Chess Open in Las Vegas, Nevada.

So, a Filipino representing the United States, wasted little time in demolishing Yermolinsky, a former member of the US Olympiad chess team, by winning the exchange early on and hacking out his fourth straight win to jump to the top with an unblemished  four points in as many rounds.

With the win, So thus seized the top spot as co-leaders GMs Maxim Dlugy and Vladimir Georgiev each ended up with half a point in the third round to share the No. 2 spot with several others in this five-day event staking a top purse worth $10,000.

Dlugy split the point with Bu Xiangzhi in 27 moves in a Fianchetto Variation of the Queen's Pawn game while Georgive afforded himself of a bye allowed in each player participating in this annual tournament using a unique format, to fall half a point behind So with 3.5 points apiece.

Earlier on the same day, So squeezed out a win out of a drawish-looking queen and bishop ending to turn back Russian International Master Roman Yankovsky in 27 moves of a Caro-Kann duel in the third round.

Against Yermolinsky, So was forceful and hammered through his foe's weak pair of central pawns that won the former Webster University standout the exchange and forcing the former to resign a couple of moves later.

So, who recently dropped out of Webster to turn professional, is using this tournament to warm up for a stronger event, the Tata Steel Masters, a Category 20 event with an average rating of 2747 set to start on Jan. 9 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.

Now living alone in Minnesota, So is also scheduled to play Hikaru Nakamura in a blitz series next week in a showdown between the US's top two chessers with the latter ranked 10th in the world with a current live rating of 2766.9 and the latter 2777.1.

After a meteoric leap from No. 28 to start the year and No. 2 today following wins in Capablanca Memorial in Cuba, ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo, Italy and the Millionaire's Cup and a second place finish in the Edmonton International in Alberta, Canada,  So is trying to breach the 2800 plateau next year.

And accomplishing it will catapult So into an elite group of reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway (2862), Italian Fabiano Caruana (2829), Russian Alexander Grischuk (2810) and Bulgarian Veselin Topalov (2800).

So's main goal though is to challenge for the world crown currently held by Magnus Carlsen, his contemporary and former training buddy.

And it will all start in Tata where he will face an elite cast headed by Carlsen, Caruana, defending champion Levon Aronian (2797) and reigning women’s world champion Hou Yifan of China (2673).

Also seeing action there are Dutch Anish Giri (2768) and Loek Van Wely (2667), French Maxime Vachier Lagrave (2758), Polish Wotjaszek (2744), Azeri Teimour Radjabov (2734), Georgian Badur Jobava (2733), Chinese Ding Liren (2732), Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk (2715) and Croatian Ivan Saric (2679).