Wesley So shares early lead with Duda, Aronian in Poland chess tiff

Wesley So won twice and drew with top seed Magnus Carlsen to share the early lead in the 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland on Sunday, May 21 (Monday, May 22, Manila time), at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

The Cavite-born So trounced Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the first round and Richard Rapport in the third after forcing Carlsen to a standoff in the second to join fellow Team USA member Levon Aronian and defending champion Jan Krzysztof Duda at the helm of the all-Super Grandmaster field in the $175,000 (P9.7 million) tournament serving as the second leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour.

Duda prevailed over Anish Giri and Deac before forcing Carlsen to another draw, while Aronian, a substitute for new world champion Ding Liren who withdrew due to fatigue, drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and bested Kirill Shevchenko and Giri, respectively.

With a win worth 2 points and a draw 1 point, So, Duda, and Aronian have 5 points each, towing 4-pointers Radoslaw Wojstaszek, who stunned Carlsen in the first round, and Vachier-Lagrave, who handed Deac a third straight defeat.

So will try to break free from Aronian and Duda on Monday, when the fourth, fifth, and sixth rounds are held.

Pitted against So in the 25-minute, 10-second increment event are Wojtaszek, Shevchenko, and Duda in succession.

Carlsen, with only 2 points to show, is expected to bounce back when he tangles with Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, and Giri, in that order.

So is aiming to better his joint second effort in the 2023 Superbet Classic Romania, won by absentee Fabiano Caruana, in Bucharest last week. – Rappler.com