MANILA, Philippines — Philippine-born Wesley So of the United States will tie reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen as the most titled player in the history of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT).
So split the point with French rival Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in 50 moves of a Ruy Lopez to virtually claim his second GCT crown with still a round to go in the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, Missouri Wednesday night (Thursday, Manila time).
The standoff ensured the defending world Fischer-Random king and two-time US champion, who topped the second edition of this same tour five years back, the GCT overall title to join Carlsen as the winningest in this annual tournament with two each.
So, who was born and grew up in Cavite but rose to as high as No. 2 in the world when he migrated years ago to the US where he eventually became a citizen, will put the icing on the cake against the US’ Leinier Dominguez Perez in the final round at press time.
The feat also assured So the bonus of $100,000 (P5 million) for emerging the overall winner apart from a share of $325,000 he will receive whatever position he will end up to in this nine-round event.
So is currently tied for second with Dominguez Perez and world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana also of the US with five points apiece.
Vachier-Lagrave remained on top with 5.5 points.
And So would have wanted to beat Vachier-Lagrave on this one as the latter owns the better head-to-head against the former, 4-0 (win-loss) with 16 draws.
“There is no secret Maxime has always been my kryptonite, the reason being is that he’s very dynamic and his style is very unpleasant for me so I really want to beat him once,” said So.
On this one, both So and Vachier-Lagrave don't want a quiet draw as they went for each other’s throats before forcing to accept the draw after they were left with nothing but their kings.