MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So qualified for the fourth round in the 2015 World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan for the first time in 6 years by ousting archrival and former Webster University teammate Le Quang Liem in Saturday night's second playoff.
Le, the Vietnamese who is the top chess player in Southeast Asia, walked into a mating attack and had to give up a knight to prolong the inevitable. On chess24.com video, So put his hand to his mouth when Le surrendered the piece.
So had not beaten Le in 7 past encounters held under the longer, classical chess format. The playoff was held using rapid chess controls, which means each player had 25 minutes to finish a game.
So, the Filipino who now plays for the United States, meets Maxime Vachier Lagrave of France in a best-of-two-games in the fourth round scheduled 6 pm, Manila time. His chances of advancing will be known at the earliest on Monday.
The World Cup is the second stage towards qualifying to the world championship.
Vachier-Lagrave, like Le Quang Liem, leads So 2-0, with 5 draws. His last victory over So came in last month's super-strong Sinquefield Cup where So finished dead last.
So was enrolled in Webster University until last November when he quit college to turn professional. His former coach Paul Truong congratulated So on the Chess Philippines Facebook site.
So is tenth in the world top list in the live ratings website which monitors changes on a daily basis compared to the monthly list released by the World Chess Federation where So was number 7 as of September. – Rappler.com