Wesley cruises to World Chess Cup 4th round

FILIPINO Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So outclassed GM Pons Francisco Vallejo of Spain to barge into the fourth round of the prestigious 2017 FIDE (International Chess Federation) World Chess Cup being held in Tbilisi, Georgia.

So, who represents the United States Chess Federation, agreed to a draw with Vallejo in 29 moves of a Sicilian duel in Game 2 of the tournament, which offers $120,000 to the champion and $80,000 to the runner-up.

The 23-year old Cavite City pride defeated Vallejo in Game 1 in 30 moves of the Caro-kann Defense.

So awaits the winner between 15th seed GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia who are scheduled to play in a playoff tiebreak after settling for draw in their first two games.

So has already matched his fourth-round finish in the 2015 edition held at the same venue.

On the other hand, Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi posted the tournament’s biggest upset after ousting top seed and world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway via a 1.5-0.5 decision.

Fourth seed GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and seventh seed GM Hikaru Nakamura of US were the other top-ranked players who were booted out in the tournament.

Kramnik was stunned by 29th seed GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, 0.5-1.5; while Nakamura also suffered the same 0.5-1.5 decision to 26th pick GM Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia.

The other players advancing to the next round are GM Wang Hao of China and GM Peter Svidler of Russia, who blasted GM Yuriy Kuzabov of Ukraine (1.5-0.5) and GM Alexander Onischuk of US (1.5-0.5), respectively.