MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So eked out a marathon 69-move victory over Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi in a rare variation of an English Opening to seize a share of the lead with Israeli Emil Sutovski in the ACP Golden Chess Classic in Bergamo, Italy Monday.
So, a 20-year-old Filipino ironically not playing for the Phl team and instead coaching the United States chess team in the 41st Chess Olympiad set Aug. 1-15 in Tromso, Norway, outplayed Nepomniachtchi in a razor-sharp pair of bishops endgame.
When the 24-year-old Nepomniachtchi, a former Russian and European champion who is a runner up in the World Blitz Championship, resigned, he was facing two unstoppable central passed pawns.
Sutovsky, the 2001 European champion who also heads the organizing ACP, made it to the top first by making quick work of Georgia's Baadur Jobava in just 21 moves of their slam-bang Sicilian encounter.
But So's masterful win sent him to the top with Sutovsky with 1.5 points apiece.
So and Sutovsky fought to a 23-move standoff in a King's Indian Attack in Sunday's opening round.
The win also gave So some rating points that catapulted him from No. 15 the day before to No. 14 with a live rating of 2750.5.
So openly declared a month ago that he's switching federations to barge into the Top 10 in the world and chase a dream of becoming world champion.