Draw, win hand So share of fourth spot

Grandmaster Wesley So picked up 1.5 points in two rounds to gain a share of fourth place in the third round of the World Juniors Chess Championships in Gaziantep, Turkey last Monday.

So, who opened his bid with a smashing win over Fide Master Djuraev Sokhib of Tajikistan, settled for a draw with the black against Indian IM Deep Sengupta. But the 14-year-old top Filipino player bounced back strong with another convincing victory over IM Denes Boros of Hungary in the upset-marred third round.

With 2.5 points, So joined 14 others in fourth place, half-a-point behind the troika of GMs Bassem Amin of Egypt and Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan and IM Tornike Sanikidze of Georgia, who remained unbeaten after three rounds of play.

Amin defeated Indian GM Parimerjan Negi, Safarli stunned Martin Kravtsiv with the black while Sanikidze trounced IM Dzhurabek Khamrakulov of Uzbekistan to show the way in the early going of the 13-round tournament.

Earlier, Sanikidze posted the tournament’s biggest upset when he upended top seed super GM Rauf Mamedov in the second round.

So, ranked 11th in a field of 109, goes for another win in the fourth round as he takes on Mexican GM Manuel Leon Hoyos.

Meanwhile, NM Haridas Pascua, the only other Filipino in the fold, bowed to third seed GM Dmitry Andreikin of Russia but overwhelmed Turkey’s Ozge Vural to notch his first point after three rounds.

He plays Slovak FM Milan Pacher in the fourth round.