So upends world No. 3, shares early chess lead

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So downed world No. 3 Dutch GM Anish Giri in 37 moves of an English Opening to gain early share of the lead in the Tata Steel Masters Chess 2016 in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands Saturday night.

Playing a timid variation of the English game, So outplayed Giri and turned what looked like a drawish position in the middlegame by pouncing on his rival’s over-extended pawns.

So thus joined Chinese GM Ding Liren and GM Fabiano Caruana, his US teammate, in the lead. Ding turned back English GM Michael Adams while Caruana defeated Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov.

So, who finished a strong runner-up here last year, is gunning for his second straight win against reigning women’s world champion GM Hou Yifan of China at press time.

Hou split the point with Russian Sergey Karjakin while defending champion and world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen also drew with Czech GM David Navarra.