Wesley So trounces Caruana, forges Speed Chess semis vs Sarin

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So bested fellow Team USA star Fabiano Caruana in all time controls to prevail, 17.5-9.5, and cruise to the semifinals of the 2021 Speed Chess Championship main event.

The Filipino-born So, the reigning back-to-back United States champion trounced Caruana, the Americans’ top board player, in the 5+1 (5 minutes, 1 second increment), 5.5-3.5, padded the lead to 10.5-7.5 after the 3+1 segment, then racked up wins from games 19 to 22 in the bullet (1 minute) segment to seal the outcome.

Caruana, the 2018 world title challenger, took the no-bearing last game.

So thus forged a semifinal tussle with Indian teen sensation Nihal Sarin in the tournament being held at the Chess.com line server.

The 17-year-old Sarin trounced German ace Richard Rapport, 18-9, earlier, to barge into the round of 4.

So’s spread could have been bigger had he not agreed to change the outcome of game 1 to a draw after Caruana, the world No. 4, encountered connectivity problems.

During the post-match interview, So said: “I think the 5+1 portion went well for me because normally that’s my weakest segment. So when I finished it with +1 or +2, I was pretty happy at that point.” 

“The first few games with black were very crucial, holding the opening,” he added. “And in the next segment, I lost the two white games, it was a big blow psychologically. Then I was completely losing with black, I believe it was in game 4, but managed to turn it around, that was the turning point.”

The winner of the So-Sarin encounter will advance to the Finals against the victor of the other semifinal tussle pitting top favorite Hikaru Nakamura against world No. 3 Ding Liren.

Nakamura, who has ruled the last three editions of the event, subdued Anish Giri, 18.5-10.5, while Ding thwarted Levon Aronia, 15-11, in the quarterfinals. – Rappler.com