76th Tata Steel Chess: Wesley So stays at second place after a win over Gelfand; Faces top-seed Aronian today
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 18 Jan 2014
Round 5 Standings: Aronian 4.0pts, Giri, So 3.5pts, Dominguez, Karjakin, Caruana 3.0pts, Harikrishna, Nakamura 2.5pts, Van Wely, Rapport 1.5pts, Naiditsch, Gelfand 1pt.
Round 6 Pairings 12:30pm Sat 18th 2014: Giri-Gelfand, Aronian-So, Karjakin-Naiditsch, Dominguez-Nakamura, Van Wely-Rapport and Harikrishna-Caruana.
Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So (ELO 2719) defeated Israeli GM Boris Gelfand (2777) to share second place in the fifth round of the super-tough Category A of the 76th Tata Steel Tournament Masters in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam on Friday.
So hiked his total to 3.5 points, the same output of local bet GM Anish Giri (2737), who brought down GM Pentala Harikrishna of India (2708) after 71 moves of Giuoco Piano Opening. So prevailed using the white pieces after 29 moves of Sicilian Rossolimo.
"I think mas maganda pawn to c4 si Gelfand sa 21st moves kaysa sa rook a8 to b8 para may counter play," said International Master Oliver Dimakiling in an exclusive interview who watched the games live through ChessBomb website along with grandmasters Mark Paragua, Darwin Laylo, GM candidate Ronald Dableo, FM David Elorta, US master Albert Rivera and candidate masters Peter and Samson Lim.
"Y'ung rook a8 to b8 parang naging passive si Gelfand," added Dimakiling, who topped a blitz chess tournament hosted by GM Laylo on Friday.
So will meet tournament leader and top seed GM Levon Aronian of Armenia (2803) on Saturday.
Aronian, boyfriend of Fil-Australian WIM Arianne Bo Caoili, beat GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany (2737) after 57 moves of Ruy Lopez Berlin to raised his total 4.0 points.
So and Aronian first met during the last World Chess Olympiad and their game ended up in a fighting draw.
"I won't say it's my achievement, more the mistakes of my opponent but it certainly felt like a great example of how a leading player can take an unpromising position and apply really serious pressure using the clock and accurate moves. A really impressive win," said Aronian to the official website of Tata Steel.
In other results, GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy (2782) toppled GM Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands (2678) after 73 moves of Sicilian Sveshnikov, GM Leinier Dominguez of Cuba (2754) walloped GM Richard Rapport (ELO 2691) of Hungrary after 30 moves of English Symmetrical and GM Hikaru Nakamura of the USA (2786) split the point with GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia (2756) after 24 moves of Nimzo Indian Defense. -Marlon Bernardino-
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