SUMMARY
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Wesley So remained the overall leader of the Champions Chess Tour (CCT) despite a fourth-place finish in the Magnus Carlsen Invitational on Sunday, March 21 (Monday, March 22, Manila time).
Carrying the momentum of his 3-1 victory over So in the first set of 4 matches on Saturday, March 20, Carlsen secured the needed two points in the second set to finish at No. 3 behind champion Anish Giri and runner-up Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Giri trounced Nepomniachtchi, 2-0, in the blitz playoff after they drew both sets, 2-2, in their title tussle and pocketed the $60,000 top purse. Nepomniachtchi settled for $40,000.
In addition, Giri vaulted to No. 4 overall from No. 9 with 96 points in the invitational serving as the fourth leg of the CCT.
The Filipino-born So garnered 32 points and bagged $15,000 to pace the points race with 140 as well as tour earnings with $85,000 thus far.
So ruled the inaugural Skilling Open and the Opera Euro Rapid at the expense of Carlsen and reached the knockout playoffs of the Airthings Masters won by Teimour Radjabov.
Carlsen notched 50 points to trail So with 135 and surpass Radjabov, who stayed with 108 points after failing to advance to the quarterfinals.
Radjabov also fell behind So in earnings with $78,500.
Nepomniachtchi is at No. 5, followed by Levon Aronian at No. 6, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave at No. 7, and Hiraku Nakamura at No. 8 in the overall points race.
The top 8 are sure to be invited in the fifth leg of the 10-stop CCT.
Since the Invitational is a major tournament, Giri has qualified for the 10-man CCT Grand Finals along with Radjabov. – Rappler.com
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