So grabs lead in Corus Chess

Cebu - Topseed GM Wesley So grabbed the lead in Corus Group C after defeating IM Manuel Bosboom of the Netherlands.

So, expertly handled the white pieces and forced Bosboom to resign in 36 moves of a Center Game in their eleventh round match.

With only two more rounds left, So is half a point ahead of erstwhile leader Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp Persson (7.5 points), who lost to IM Ali Bitalzadeh of the Netherlands, and a point ahead of third placer FM Anis Giri of Russia (7.0).

So and Persson meet in a penultimate round match that may well determine the eventual winner of Group C.

The victory of the 15-year-old Filipino prodigy was his third in a row after losing in Round 8 to German GM Frank Holzke. In eleven rounds, So won six games and drawn four.

In other groups, Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, Teymor Radjabov and Sergei Movsesian are in a logjam for first with 6.6 points in Group A. Nigel Short is still the leader in Group B with 7.5 point. Within half a point behind are GM’s Fabiano Caruana and Rustam Kasimdzhanov. – RBO (THE FREEMAN)