So falls to Nakamura in blitz death match

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So was hoping to use his blitz death match with top American Grandmaster Hiraku Nakamura to gain confidence heading into the ultra competitive 77th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.

He was mistaken.

Playing his first blitz match in a long while, So was punished by Nakamura, the second highest rated blitz player in the world with a rating of 2883 or second only to reigning world champion and blitz king Magnus Carlsen's 2948, after absorbing a humiliating 11.5-21.5 defeat.

In a match between the United States' top two chessers, Nakamura was heads above water over So, whose blitz rating of 2721 is ranked somewhere outside the top 20 in the world, and won their marathon showdown early yesterday that lasted three hours.

Nakamura beat So in their match using the 5/1 (five minutes with 1 second increment) time control, 6.5-2.5 on four wins, five draws and no losses as well as their duel using 1/1 time control, 10.5-4.5, on 10 triumphs, four setbacks and a draw.

So's saving grace was a 4.5-4.5 deadlock in the 3/1 time control on four wins and same number of setbacks and a draw.

It was the first time in a long while that So, who now represents the US, suffered such an embarrassing loss.

Mercifully, So will have about a week to recover from it as he gears up for Tata, a Category 20 event where he will battle against the best woodpushers in the world headed by Carlsen and women's world champion Hou Yifan on Saturday (Phl time).

The defeat, however, failed to dampen what So has enormously achieved last year when he won four tournaments and finished second in one that catapulted him from No. 28 to No. 10 with a 2771, which, interestingly, is just a shade behind No. 9 Nakamura's 2776 in FIDE's classical rankings.

So's wins came in the Capblanca Memorial in Cuba, the ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo, Italy, and the Millionaire's Chess Open and North American Open in Las Vegas while his runner up effort came in the Edmonton Open won by Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk in Alberta, Canada.

If he hadn't switched federations, So would have easily been the best performing Filipino athlete ahead of Incheon Asian Games BMX gold medalist Daniel Caluag and World Youth Games archery gold medal winner Gabriel Moreno.