So rebounds, outplays Dutch in Tata Steel Masters

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So outplayed Dutch Loek Van Wely in a furious time scramble and eked out a 41-move victory in their Classical King's Indian duel to get back on track after nine rounds of the 2014 Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands Thursday night.

So, 20, sacrificed a rook for Van Wely's dangerous knight to slow down the latter's kingside attack while fast-tracking his onslaught on the queenside, setting the stage for a nerve-wracking battle against the clock.

Instead of pursuing a complex tactical duel, So opted to simply trade queens, leaving him with a three-pawn battering ram in the queenside while rending Van Wely's rook inutile against the former's active bishop.

The win pushed So at joint sixth with Indian Pentala Harikrishna, who made short work of German Arkadij Naidistch in just 19 moves in their Queen's Pawn game, with five points each.

Top seed and World No. 2 Levon Aronian of Armenia smashed Russian Sergey Karjakin's Queen's Indian Defense with a marathon 61-move win to solidify his stranglehold of the lead with 7.0 points, 1.5 clear of Dutch Anish Giri, Cuban Leinier Dominguez Perez, Italian Fabiano Caruana and Karjakin.

The win also eased the stigma of So's devastating 21-move defeat at the hands of Perez in Tuesday's eighth round.

So also dedicated the win to his mother Leny, who is now based in Canada along with husband William and two daughters.

So is hoping to do good in his last two games against Harikrishna in the 10th and penultimate round Saturday and Caruana the final round Sunday.