So sweeps GM rival, reaches World Cup 3rd round

MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So bested Hungarian GM Csaba Balogh for the second straight time to fashion out another two-game sweep to roll into the third round of the Chess World Cup 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan Tuesday.

Like in their first match, So gave up a pawn to open up the center file of their English Opening game and later a knight to launch a risky kingside attack which he sustained with accurate combinations to force Balogh to squirm in time trouble.

The Hungarian eventually resigned on the 34th.

It was another impressive win for So, who outplayed Balogh in a rook-and-pawn endgame for a 67-move win in a Ruy Lopez in their first game.

So also disposed of Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo via a two-game romp in the opener to remain unbeaten in four games in the biennial event staking two slots in next year’s World Candidates Match.

So will face either Vietnamese Le Quang Liem or Russian Nikita Vitiugov, who drew their two matches and were playing a two-game tiebreaker at presstime, in the third round.

Le is So’s former teammate at Webster University under former women’s world champion Susan Polgar and owns a 3.5-2.5 head-to-head with the latter in six encounters.

So’s string of wins has slowly put him back in the world top 10 rankings after dropping from ninth to 12th with a last-place finish in the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri two weeks ago.

So is back at No. 10 with a 2769.5 rating.