Wesley blitzed, slips to third in Paris GP

MANILA, Philippines — Wesley So suffered crushing defeats at the hands of Russians Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Grischuk and settled for draws in four games of the blitz event to drop off the lead after topping the rapid event of the Paris Grand Chess Tour ’18 in Paris, France Saturday night.

With a combined score of 16 points, So slid to third after scoring just four in the first nine rounds of the 18-round blitz section.

Karjakin emerged with the best score in blitz with 6.5 points to wrest control with 17.5 points while So’s US teammate Hikaru Nakamura had 5.5 points in blitz to move up to second with 16.5 points.

The losses also dropped So from No. 4 in the world blitz rankings to No. 12 with a 2797 live rating.