MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So outlasted ex-Webster University teammate Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the tiebreaks to score a 2.5-1.5 victory and advance to the fourth round of the Chess World Cup 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan Saturday.
After splitting their two-game third round match, So scraped his way to a 57-move draw of a Ruy Lopez despite being a pawn down in the first of a two tiebreak matches and then, as black, pounced on an endgame blunder by Le to snare a 37-move win in a Nimzo-Indian Defense to seal the win.
So thus forged a round-of-16 showdown with French Maxime Vachier Lagrave, who bested Russian Evgeny Tomashevsky, 4-2.
So made it to the third round by sweeping Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo and Hungarian Csaba Balogh in a pair of one-sided two-game triumphs before running into a more formidable Le, who effortlessly forced draws even though his rating of 2702 (World No. 41) pales in comparison to So’s 2767.5 (No. 10).
After their first two games ended in a quiet draw, Le was adventurous in the third as he outplayed his former Southeast Asian rival in a minor piece play that saw him going a pawn ahead.
But So managed to snatch a draw by shutting the doors on Le’s possible entries into his domain.
Obviously a little frustrated after missing his winning chance, Le tried to make something out of another drawish line by bringing his king into the center but failed.