Wesley So drops to 3rd spot after rapid event, blitz begins

MANILA, Philippines –Wesley So faltered in the last three rounds and tumbled to the third spot after the rapid event of the 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland on Tuesday, May 23 (Wednesday, May 24, Philippine time) at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

The Filipino-born So, now representing Team USA, lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the seventh round and drew with fellow American Levon Aronian and Anish Giri, respectively, to trail local icon Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Aronian heading to the double round-robin blitz competition starting on Wednesday.

Duda drew with Kirill Shevchenko, beat Vachier-Lagrave and drew with Aronian to boost his total to 13 points and stay on track of retaining the title he won last year at the expense of Aronian, who’s tailing him again with 12 points.

With three wins and five draws, So amassed 11 points in a tie with Vachier-Lagrave.

As expected, former world champion Magnus Carlsen rallied with wins over Bogdan Deac and Shevchenko and a draw with Richard Rapport to gain fifth spot with 10 points in the all-Super Grandmaster tournament serving as the second leg of the $1.4 million (P78 million) 2023 Grand Chess Tour.

So will open his campaign in the blitz event against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, conqueror of Carlsen in the rapid event opener.

Duda, on the other hand, will tangle with Rapport. Other first-round matches pit Deac against Shevchenko, Carlsen against Vachier-Lagrave, and Giri against Aronian.

Apart from GCT points, the Poland Rapid & Blitz dangles $40,000 (P2.23 million) to the champion. – Rappler.com