MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So blundered away a drawish game and lost to Russian Sergey Karjakin in 40 moves of a Bogo-Indian to fall back to the bottom after seven rounds of the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Berlin, Germany Sunday night.
With the duel appearing to go into a standoff, So made an errant king move that allowed Karjakin to win a piece that dealt the Cavite-born, Minnetonka, Minnesota-based chesser his third defeat in this tournament giving the champion a spot to challenge reigning world champion Magnus Carlson for the title.
The win sent Karjakin out of last place and into sixth spot with three points while pushing So back to last place alongside Armenian Levon Aronian with 2.5 points apiece.
Fabiano Caruana, So’s United States teammate, turned back Aronian to regain the solo lead with five points, half a point ahead of Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who split the point with Russia’s Alexander Grischuk.
China’s Ding Liren, Grischuk and another Russian Vladimir Kramnik were at third to fifth places with 3.5 points each.
Halfway through the event, So would need to rake in a flurry of wins starting with Caruana, who dealt him a painful defeat in the first round, in the eighth round as of posting time to stay in title contention.