Wesley wins with queen sacrifice

MANILA, Philippines - GM Wesley So baffled GM Marcin Dziuba of Poland with a queen sacrifice then went on to fashion out a 41-move victory and keep a share of lead with GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in the ninth round of the Reykjavik Open chess championship in Iceland yesterday.

The victory didn’t only keep So in the title hunt but also enabled the Filipino ace to breach the 2700 rating mark.

“Wesley’s current live rating is 2701 after the win over Polish GM (Marcin) Dziuba,” said National Chess Federation of the Phils. president/chair Butch Pichay, who watched the game live through the internet. 

So’s rating performance going to the 10th and final round is 2768.

So, needing a win to boost his championship bid, sacrificed a queen for a rook and a bishop in their Caro-Kann game, gaining a slight advantage, which he translated into a winning position. After a brief skirmish at endgame, he checkmated Dziuba on the 41st to raise his total to 7.5 points.

Elianov matched that output by downing GM Ding Liren of China.

Eljanov played well with the black against Ding with both players deciding to spread out their pawns on the flanks, leaving their kings uncastled.

The Ukrainian broke into the center by sacrificing a knight for two pawns. Ding tried to hang on but failed to stop Elianov’s strong passed pawn on the queenside, forcing him to resign on the 22nd.

GMs Grzegorz Gajewski of Poland, Anish Giri of the Netherlands, Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, Gawain Jones of England, Bassem Amin of Egypt and IM Wei Yi of China, share third spot with seven points.