Wesley So fends off Kramnik attack to draw in Rd 5 of Candidates Tournament

MANILA, Philippines – After all 4 games in Round 5 of the 2018 Candidates Tournament in Berlin ended in a draw Friday morning Manila time, Wesley So and Sergey Karjakin remained tied for last place with 1.5 points –  two points behind the leader Fabiano Caruana.

So’s game was the last to finish, a five-hour battle where Vladimir Kramnik, at 42 the oldest player in the eight-man field. Kramnik, pressed and pressed despite playing Black in a Queen’s Gambit Declined. The draw, in 57 moves, was tense and the press conference uncovered part of the tale. Part of Kramnik’s motive was to finally win his first game against So, and he used his skill to convert equal and seemingly tame positions to wins but to no avail.

Asked by the moderator where Kramnik got his energy to rebound after he rode a roller coaster of emotions in the last two games, the former world champion said: “It is a professional life. I am already used to these kinds of things. It’s not the first time I am doing something ridiculous.” Then, Kramnik added: “Of course, it’s a bit unpleasant but it is just the beginning of the tournament.”

On Round 3, Kramnik created a brillancy with a rare attacking game against Levon Aronian but on Round 4, Kramnik fell back to earth when he was upset by Fabiano Caruana. In the same press conference, Kramnik told So: ” He (Caruana) made a bad move and then offered a draw and I thought for a long time before I blundered.”

In their game, Kramnik equalized after So’s 20th Qh2 where he said he thought he had a bad position. But So put himself together and got equality. It is in equal endgames where Kramnik is most dangerous as he manages to pose problems without too much risk to himself.

So felt this on the 43rd move. “When the bishop began moving to Be8 and Bg6, I started really to get really worried,” he said. Kramnik replied : “That is the main idea. You cannot win the position but the opponent can lose it because he is getting worried of something that is not really a threat. You manuever with a very clever face and you pretend that there is a plan and so on.”

So held firm, remembering the cat-and-mouse tactics Kramnik used in a game three years ago in almost the same position. As most of the Filipino chess fans on social media were off to sleep at 2 am, thinking it was drawn, few had an idea of the kind of stress their idol faced against Kramnik, one of So’s idols when he was growing up in Bacoor, Cavite.

In Round 6, So faces Aronian with whom he has a minus score. If he showed a clue how he could prepare against Aronian, So showed it with a question to Kramnik before they began accepting questions from reporters. “Wasn’t he worse?,” asked So. “Should be,” replied Kramnik of Aronian’s wild draw against Alexander Grischuk.

Standings after 5 rounds: 

Round 5 results: Caruana 0.5 – 0.5 Karjakin, Wesley So 0.5 – 0.5, Kramnik, Aronian 0.5 – 0.5 Grischuk, Ding Liren 0.5 – 0.5 Mamedyarov. Caruana leads with 3.5/5.

Round 6 pairings: Caruana-Grischuk, Mamedyarov-Kramnik, Ding Liren-Karjakin, Wesley So-Aronian.

– Rappler.com