So tops Aronian, ties for sixth in Candidates Matches

MANILA, Philippines — Wesley So registered his first victory as he downed Armenian Levon Aronian in 78 moves of a Ruy Lopez to storm back into title contention after six rounds of the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2018 in Berlin, Germany Friday night.

The Cavite-born, Minnetonka, Minnesota-based So forced Aronian into a cramped position, won a pawn early and built up an attack that earned him the latter’s queen for a rook and a knight and a lasting advantage.

Instead of resigning, Aronian unabashedly plodded on but So displayed superb endgame technique to extract the full point.

When it was over, So ended up with an unstoppable three-pawn battering ram in the queenside.

It was a huge win for So, who started the tournament with two straight losses, as it pushed him from the bottom to a share of sixth with his victim with 2.5 points, or just 1.5 points off co-leaders Fabiano Caruana of the United States and Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with four points apiece.

Caruana split the point with Russia’s Alexander Grischuk while Mamedyarov downed Vladimir Kramnik also of Russia.

The tournament took its second break before So resumes his campaign with a seventh-round duel with Russian Sergey Karjakin in this 14-round tournament staking one slot to the World title duel with reigning champion Magnus Carlsen in November in London.