Wesley topples Dutch rival

MANILA, Philippines - Super Grandmaster Wesley So dismantled Dutch GM Loek Van Wely in 44 moves of an English duel to stay within striking distance of leader Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov after four rounds of the Tata Steel Chess 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands Tuesday night.

So, 23, pounced on Van Wely’s passive opening play and worked on a slight positional advantage to emerge a pawn up which he converted into an unstoppable queenside passed pawn to clinch the victory.

So thus improved to three points, half-a-point behind Eljanov, who beat Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban to stay on top with 3.5 points.

It also hiked the Cavite-born So’s live rating from 2811.5 to 2815, the third highest in the world today.

Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen also joined So in second with a victory over Chinese teener GM Wei Yi.

The 13-round tournament took a break last night and will resume today with So battling Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, who split the point with world challenger GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia, in the fifth round.