Wesley So beaten by 15-year-old at US Chess Championship

MANILA, Philippines – Chess lovers marked Black Saturday with double grief as Wesley So, the world’s fifth-ranked player, lost to a 15-year-old grandmaster in the third round United States Chess Championship in St Louis, Missouri.

Samuel Sevian, displaying what grandmaster Josh Friedel called “nerves of titanium” played the black pieces and waded into complications which taxed even So’s usually superb calculating ability. The end came after 41 moves of a Queen’s Gambit, with Sevian, the youngest grandmaster in US history poised to deliver mate in six. 

Hikaru Nakamura and Ray Robson, a former teammate of So at Webster University, were tied for the lead with 2.5 points. So is in third with two points. He plays Nakamura on Sunday morning. 

Sevian is tied for fourth to eighth places with 1.5 points with his only win of the event so far.  

Online commentators said Sevian was inferior, pointing to his unsafe King but as So hesitated on whether to tighten the screws or go for direct attack, Sevian gave up his rook for So’s strong knight on the 22nd move.  

Sevian slowly grabbed the initiative and even with the queens off, So came under heavy pressure which he was unable to fend off.  

The game, broadcast on many chess portals Saturday morning, stunned viewers who were mostly Filipinos cheering for the Philippines’ former top player who transferred from the National Chess Federation of the Philippines to the US Chess Federation last October 2014.

(READ: Trillanes to PSC: Explain ‘mishandling’ of Wesley So’s federation switch)

“Boy blunder si So,” said billyjoeereno at chessbomb. Sighed Iskubadayb at Wesley So’s chess page: “Kuwarta na naging bato pa.”   

Dempto Anda of Inquirer aptly put it:” Mamasapano over the chessboard. Ventured in complicated mid-game terrain and got killed.” – Rappler.com