So busts Wely, wheels back into contention

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 assault on the queenside in a nerve-wracking battle against the clock.

Instead of pursuing a complex tactical duel, So opted to simplify things by trading queens, leaving him with a three-pawn battering ram in the queenside while rendering 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 Kariakin’s Queen’s Indian Defense in 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 Kariakin.

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 celebrated her birthday yesterday.

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