So whips Polish GM, wrests 1-point lead

MANILA, Philippines - GM Wesley So came out of a four-draw run with a crushing victory over Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek to pull away from the pack after 10 rounds of the Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan Zee Wednesday night.

So went on an attack mode early on and sent Wojtaszek to the defensive before carving out the 34-move victory with a passed b pawn in a knight vs bishop ending of their English duel.

The win hiked So’s total to seven points, a full point ahead of reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, world challenger GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia, GM Levon Aronian of Armenia, GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and GM Wei Yi of China heading to the last three rounds of the top-level event.

Carlsen drew with GM Pentala Harikrishna of India; Karjakin trounced GM Dmitry Andreikin of Russia; Aronian blasted GM Richard Rapport of Hungary; and Eljanov and Wei split the point.

The victory also boosted So’s live rating to 2820.1, just few points behind No. 2 GM Fabiano Caruana of the US.

Carlsen still sits atop everyone with a world best 2837 rating.

After another break, So takes on Russian GM Dimitry Andreikin in the 11th, Wei in the 12th and another Russian GM Ian Nepomniatchi in the final round.

With his current form, So also hopes to get a crack at challenging Carlsen for the world title in the next championship cycle starting this year.