Rules star-studded Tata with final round win Wesley ranks world No. 2

MANILA, Philippines - Needing a victory to avoid a playoff, GM Wesley So trounced Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi straight from the opening and pulled off a resounding 28-move victory to capture the Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Sunday night.

The Cavite-born chesser, who plays for the US, also moved to No. 2 in the world ranking.

“Winning this tournament is huge, with the world champion in it. It’s a wonderful start of the year,” said So, 23, in an interview with chess.com.

So finished with nine points on five victories and eight draws, including an opening round standoff with reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, who wound up second with eight points while GM B. Adhiban beat GM Richard Rapport to tie GMs Levon Aronian and Wei Yi at 7.5.

So also won the Sinquefield Cup in August last year, took the Olympic team gold and the individual gold in last year’s Olympiad and topped the London Chess Classic. His final round victory over Nepomniachtchi also stretched his unbeaten streak to 56 games, making him the hottest player in the sport.

He gained +14.1 points from his Tata Steel win, hiking his rating to 2822.1 and moving past erstwhile No. 2 GM Fabiano Caruana (2816.) and closer to Carlsen (2838.3).

Holding to a 0.5 lead over three pursuers, including Carlsen, Aronian and Wei, heading to the final round, So pounced on what experts said was Nepomniachtchi’s weak moves in the early going of their Trompovsky Attack match, including a queenside castle that enabled So to pin his rival’s queen and launch his queen-rook attack.

He was up in material (queen and knight against rook, knight and bishop) and pawns (6 against 5) when Nepomniachtchi’s resigned on the 28th as the latter faced the threat of another loss of material.

The victory, worth 10,000 Euro dollars (P532,000), was so swift and decisive and So started accepting the congratulations from the organizers, officials and guests, including former world champion Anatoly Karpov, while six other games, including those of his pursuers, were still being played.

In the end, even a draw with Nepomniachtchi would’ve clinched So the crown as Carlsen settled for a draw with GM Sergey Karjakin, Aronian fell to GM Dmitri Andreikin, and Wei bowed to GM Radoslav Wojtaszek.

It was So’s first victory in the annual tournament after finishing sixth in 2014 and third in 2015 and last year.

National Chess Federation of the Phl’s acting executive director Red Dumuk said So’s victory was a proud moment and accomplishment for the country.

“It’s something we should celebrate because Wesley So is born in the Philippines and still a Filipino even though he now represents the US,” said Dumuk, who is also the NCFP treasurer and deputy secretary-general.

With his Tata Steel win, So hopes to get a crack at Carlsen’s title with the Championship cycle set to start this year.