Wesley So barges into semis of Clutch Chess tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So waylaid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 13-5, to book a semifinal seat in the US$256,000 Clutch Chess International done online Tuesday night.

The 26-year-old Cavite-born So, who is representing the United States, took the a comfortable 5.5-2.5 lead after the first six games and then won the last two — Games 11 and 12 — to finish off his French foe.

The current World Fischer-Random champion thus barged into the semis where he will tackle either Fabiano Caruana or Leinier Dominguez, who are both his US teammates, on Thursday and Friday.

So is coming off a triumph in the Clutch Champions Cup where he turned back Caruana and pocketed $40,000 or P2 million a week ago.

Magnus Carlsen, the reigning world champion in standard, rapid and blitz, likewise advanced to the semis after surviving an upset-conscious Jeffrey Xiong, 11.5-6.5.

But unlike So, Carlsen faced a tougher challenge as the 19-year-old American, who was handled by US-based Filipino Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra in 2013-2015, managed to win two games to forge a 4.5-all deadlock.

Carlsen, however, restored order and took over late by winning Games Nine, 11 and 12 to fend up Xiong’s upset try.