So whips Russian foe as Laylo draws match

MOSCOW - GM Wesley So of the Philippines produced another strong effort with the white pieces, pulling off a resounding victory over GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia in the pivotal fourth round of the 2010 Aeroflot Open chess championship at the Hotel Gamma-Delta Friday (Manila time). So, at 16 already one of the world’s most successful junior players, threw caution to the wind and battled it out with the lower-rated Russian player (ELO 2591) in a furious middle game before coming away with the win in 35 moves.

The 17th-seeded Filipino champion (ELO 2656), who bagged the top junior award here last year, pounced on a blunder by Rakhmanov on the 26th move and captured his opponent’s queen with a rook three moves later. When the end came, So had a queen, bishop and five pawns against the Russian’s rook, two bishops and six pawns. So, however, is on the verge of gobbling up Rakhmanov’s unprotected rook with 35. Qg8. The win followed So’s heart-breaking setback to fellow child prodigy GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam in the third round Thursday, a game the Filipino blew with the disadvantageous black pieces. But more importantly, the win enabled the Cavite-based So to vault into a tie for ninth to 33rd places with 2.5 points with still five rounds remaining. So, who has two wins, one draw and one loss, is only a full point behind Nguyen and another Vietnamese campaigner, GM Le Quang Liem. The 40th-seeded Nguyen followed up his stirring upset win over So with another gigantic triumph over No. 20 seed GM Artyom Timofeev of Russia. Le, for his part, halved the point with GM Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria in the other featured fourth-round encounter. So will meet No. 59 GM Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia in the fifth round late Saturday. Melkumyan, one of four Armenian players in the 80-player field, has one win and three draws so far. Reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion GM Darwin Laylo drew with IM Alexandre Danin of Russia to finally snap a three-game losing skid. The Lipa City-based Laylo lost his first three games against GMs Rauf Mamedov and Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan and GM Markus Ragger of Austria. In the fifth-round, Laylo (ELO 2556) will take on GM Josep Manu Martinez (ELO 2593) of Spain. - GMANews.TV