MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So is a firm believer in the old adage, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.”
Learning from the past humiliation he suffered at the hands of a familiar foe using the same notoriously bad opening, So exacted revenge on reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen, topping the Norway Chess 2022 blitz tournament in Stavanger, Norway Monday.
The two-time United States titlist made Carlsen pay for employing the same opening line named Bongcloud Attack, which is considered a poor move and a joke opening, and won their sixth-round showdown.
So went on to rule the 10-player event with 6.5 points, a full point ahead of eventual second-placer Carlsen.
It was So’s payback to Carlsen, who beat the former in the chess24 Banter Blitz using the same ridiculous line two years ago.
“I felt like playing h5 or a5 but I’ve done that before but it didn’t work. Big shout out to Magnus for having the courage to play it. I think he played it against me in a blitz game and he also beat me,” said So.
“Even though I felt something like before, I had to prevent myself and I just played normal chess,” he added.
He needed to bounce back from an opening-round loss to Wang Hao of China and quiet draws with Vishwanathan Anand of India and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and went on a five-game winning spree he highlighted with that impressive win over Carlsen.
So hopes to ride the crest of his recent feat as he sees action in the main standard tournament that started at press time.