Vachier-Lagrave puzzle puts Wesley So's title bid in peril

MANILA, Philippines – Somewhere down the road, Wesley So will have to find ways to solve the Maxime Vachier-Lagrave puzzle if the Philippine-born American would want to realize his dream of becoming world classical champion.

The 28-year-old So continued to fall under Vachier-Lagrave’s spell and suffered a disastrous seventh-round defeat in standard Wednesday that may have cost him his title bid in the Norway Chess in Stavanger.

Looking in control with the black pieces after employing his pet Berlin of the Ruy Lopez, So suddenly played an errant knight move that allowed Vachier-Lagrave to gain a precious tempo and a winning pawn edge that he easily converted ino a win and the full three points.

Because of the catastrophic setback, So fell down to fifth place with 10 points and may have kissed his title aspiration goodbye.

In contrast, it sent Vachier-Lagrave up to a share of No. 3 with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan with 11.5 points apiece behind only Magnus Carlsen — the reigning world champion — with 13.5 points and Vishwanathan Anand of India with 13.

It also hiked Vachier-Lagrave’s head-to-head tally with So in classical at 6-1 and 19 draws.

Besides Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen also owns a winning record over So in standard at 5-1.

But So had already conquered Carlsen twice — first in the blitz section and the other in the second round of this same tournament that is now on its 10th edition — to somehow lift the curse.

The only thing left for So now to clean up the road to a potential world championship trip in the future is to remove another barrier named Vachier-Lagrave, who keeps haunting him in his dreams.