MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So flashed endgame brilliance to beat Hungarian grandmaster Csaba Balogh in 67 moves of a Ruy Lopez game in the first of their two-game second round match of the Chess World Cup 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan Monday.
So, now representing the US, sacrified a piece for a pawn which he regained a move later but which gave him a play at center and later exposed white’s kingside before launching an attack on Balogh’s isolated central d-pawn.
So later pounced on another weak pawn in the a-file for the decisive attack.
Balogh, toting a rating of 2665, resigned as So poised to promote his queenside passed pawn.
So, who disposed of Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo in a lopsided match in the opener, needs only a draw in his second round duel with Balogh to seal a spot in the third round.
So is out to atone for his forgettable last-place effort in the 10-player Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri two weeks ago that saw him drop 12.9 rating points and slide from No. 9 to No. 12 in the world FIDE rankings.
But his three straight wins in the World Cup put So back in the top 10 with a live rating of 2766.
So made it to the round-of-16 here six years ago in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia where he shocked the likes of GMs Gadir Guseinov, 4-1, Vassily Ivanchuk, 1.5-.5 and Gata Kamsky, 1.5-.5, before bowing to Vladimir Malakhov, 1-4, in their duel for a quarterfinal berth.