So one draw away from ruling ACP Golden Chess Classic

MANILA, Philippines – GM Wesley So outplayed GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia in 37 moves with a French duel transposed into a King's Indian Attack Friday night to move a draw away from topping the ACP Golden Chess Classic in Bergamo, Italy.

So punished Jobava's opening deviation as the 20-year-old Filipino forced the latter into a bad position, gained two queenside passed pawns and was about to win the exchange when the Georgian resigned.

After five games and a bye the day before, the Webster U standout has a tournament-best four points, a full point ahead of Israeli GM and organizing ACP president Emil Sutovsky, going into the final round.

A  draw against untitled Italian Sabino Brunello in the last round would clinch So his second victory of the year after he also topped the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba a month back that catapulted him to 15th in the FIDE world rankings.

So also moved from No. 13 two days ago to No. 12 in the rankings as he now has a live rating of 2757.3.

In five games, So is undefeated with three wins, the other two against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and Italian Daniele Vocaturo, and two draws with Sutovsky and Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi.

After this tournament, So will reportedly train with his coach Susan Polgar's sister, Judit,  in Hungary for a week before going straight to Tromso, Norway, where he will coach the US chess team in the 41st Olympiad from Aug. 1-15.

So has announced he will switch federations, which forced the Phl, composed of GMs Oliver Barbosa, Julio Catalino Sadorra, John Paul Gomez and Eugene Torre, to replace him with newly-minted International Master Paulo Bersamina.