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YEREVAN, Armenia—Wesley So came back with vengeance Friday,
beating fellow IM Sasha Kaplan of India and finally earning his
second GM norm in the World Junior Chess Championship at the Tirgran
Petrosian House.
Hardly bothered by back-to-back losses to GM
Ahmed Adly of Egypt and top seed GM Wang Hao of China in the seventh
and eighth rounds, So played almost flawlessly with the white pieces
and outclassed the 30th-seeded Kaplan after only 45 moves of the
Four Knights Game.
When the end came, So had a rook, bishop and two
pawns against Kaplan’s rook and four pawns.
The 14-year-old Filipino campaigner from Bacoor,
Cavite, however, was threatening mate with his rook and bishop
on the seventh rank.
With the win, So bounced back into a tie for
seventh to 13th places with six points on five wins, two draws and
two losses with still four rounds remaining in the 13-round,
80-player tournament hosted by the Armneia Chess Federation.
The second year high school student of St.
Francis College (Cavite) is now only a full point behind Wang and
Adly and half a point behind GMs Georg Meier of Germany, Ivan
Popov of Russia, and Arman Pashikian of Armenia and IM
Avetik Grigorian of Armenia.
More importantly, the win also assured So his
second GM norm.
“I’m very happy to win again and earn my
second GM norm here,” said So, who achieved his first GM
norm in the Bad Wiesse Open in Germany last year.
“Sana po magtuloy-tuloy na uli ang swerte,”
added So in an email through his father-manager, William.
So resumes his campaign against No. 28 IM
Abhijeet Gupta of India, who won over No.19 IM Fidel Corrales
Jimenez.
Wang, who tied for first place with fellow
Chinese GM Zhang Pengxiang in the recent Asian IndividuaL Chess
Championship held in Mandaue City, defeated Adly in the featured
ninth-round encounter.
Pashikian upset GM Maxim Rodshtein of Israel,
Meier drew with Grigoryan and Popov halved the point with Negi in
other top board matches.
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