Wesley So clinches 1st win in Round 6 vs Aronian

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – After 3 draws, Wesley So finally nabbed his first win of the 2018 FIDE Candidates’ Tournament, where the winner will challenge world chess champion Magnus Carlsen, at the expense of Armenia’s Levon Aronian on Friday, March 16, at Kühlhaus Berlin. 

“Finally we see the Wesley who dominated and had a long winning streak last year,” said former Russian champion Peter Svidler in the chess24.com live commentary, referring to So’s 71-game unbeaten record which raised him to number two in the world.

So’s 78-move victory over Levon Aronian in a Ruy Lopez gave him 2.5 points, the same as Aronian. At last place is Sergey Karjakin, who won the 2016 Candidates tournament,

Fabiano Caruana was joined at the top with Shakriyar Mamedyarov with 4 points. Rest day is scheduled Sunday. On Monday, So will face Karjakin ending the first half of the double-round robin event. A win would reduce the difference between So and the leaders. 

So gave up a pawn on the queenside in exchange for positional pressure against Aronian’s c4 square and attack on the weak e6 pawn. The foundation of So’s plan was 22 b3, which stops Aronian from advancing on the queenside and gives So options to increase pressure: either attacking the Knight which gobbled the extra pawn or doubling rooks at the Queen file. It is a move commentators missed. 

This forced Aronian to find the only moves to frustrate So until the Armenian erred on the 33rd move.

The US’ hopes of an American challenger have been boosted by Caruana but the second US representative, So, had a deluge of greeters from Filipinos who stayed up until past 3am to see him convert an endgame where he had a Queen, three pawns against Aronian’s Rook, Bishop and pawn.

The Philippine Facebook page Chess News and Views had 54 comments (and counting) on its thread and chessbomb live arena exploded with praise. 

“Mabuhay to our Philippine pride Wesley So!  Good luck on the remaining rounds,” said Emilio I. Rana at Chess News and Views. “Wow! may pagasa pa ang GM WESLEY SO natin. Samahan ka ng Panginoon Diyos sa lahat ng laro mo idol. Godbless you,” added Rody de Guzman at the same FB page. 

“They are trollin for sure!!!”, said said azertylou lou at chessbomb. Keekdenkrements said ” lemon. erronian”  and hermitage171 replied:” Jesus, calm down. These guys are both great at chess.”

Aronian, who married former Philippines’ womens top board Arianne Caoili in October 2017 in Armenia, ago, was beside himself in the press conference. 

After So missed a killer move on his 33rd, a Rook move to support the Knight at e6, and played instead Nf4, Aronian said he relaxed.

“At (33) Nf4 that’s the point where I relaxed which was really stupid because all of these difficult moves, I had to calculate and then it was insane…. Rf8 (which Aronian replied) is a terrible move. I am sure of it.”

At the press conference, So admitted he missed 33 Rd6. “I didn’t see that,” he said. “This is extremely interesting because you are threatening Bf4 ( attacking the queen)” said Aronian. – Rappler.com