So drops third rd match to Vietnamese rival

MOSCOW - GM Wesley So of the Philippines put up a brave stand before losing to GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam in a keenly-watched all-Asian showdown in the third round of the 2010 Aeroflot Open chess championship at the Hotel Gamma-Delta Thursday (Manila time). So, seeded 17th with an ELO of 2656, resigned after Nguyen’s 40th move with the 20-year-old Vietnamese champion set to launch a strong rook-bishop attack on So’s exposed king on the g-file.

A former child prodigy who won the world under-10 championship in 2000, Nguyen earlier gave up a knight for two pawns on his 24th move to gain attacking chances against So. The Filipino returned the knight for a pawn three moves later but still found himself on the defensive end. It was the first win for Nguyen against So in their head-to-head duel after the two Southeast Asian rivals drew their previous two games, including a short, 12-move standoff during the 2008 world under-19 youth tournament held in Vietnam. The loss, which followed a draw with GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran in the first round and a win over GM Dmitry Bocharov of Russia in the second round, relegated So into a tie for 36th to 52nd places in the 80-player field with 1.5 points in three rounds. Overall, it was a bad day for the Filipinos. Reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion GM Darwin Laylo lost for the third time in as many matches, yielding to GM Markus Ragger of Austria. The Lipa City-based campaigner was two pawns down but decided to battle Ragger in a hopeless position in the endgame. The Austrian had a rook, bishop and two pawns against the Filipino’s rook and knight. Laylo accepted the inevitable after Ragger’s 82nd move with the Filipino on the verge of losing another piece to prevent white’s pawn from promotion. Laylo, who also lost his first two games against two GMs from Azerbaijan – Rauf Mamedov and Eltaj Safarli - is one of only three players who have yet to score even half a point. The 16-year-old So will try to recover lost ground when he plays white against GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia in the fourth round late Friday. But Rakhmanov will not be an easy customer. Seeded only 55th with an ELO of 2591, Rakhmanov also has a 1-1-1 win-draw-loss record, all against higher-rated players. He pulled off one of the biggest upset wins in the opening round when he toppled No. 15 seed GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (ELO 2658) of Russia. Laylo’s fourth-round opponent is IM Alexandre Danin of Russia. - GMANews.TV