So nips Armenian rival, climbs to fourth spot

MOSCOW – GM Wesley So of the Philippines continued his amazing recovery by hacking out another decisive victory over GM Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia in the fifth round of the ninth Aeroflot Open chess championship at the Hotel Gamma-Delta Saturday (Manila time). The 16-year-old So, one of the youngest players in the tough, 80-player tournament, handled the disadvantageous black pieces with surprising ease and outdueled the 59th-seeded Melkumyan in only 39 moves.

So gave up a rook for a bishop and two pawns on his 22nd move to gain strong attacking chances on the Armenian’s uncastled king on h1 and went for the kill with a potent queen-rook-bishop assault. The Filipino ace was threatening mate in one or an overwhelming material advantage when Melkumyan accepted the inevitable. When the end came, So had a queen, rook, bishop and seven pawns against Melkumyan’s queen, rook, knight and four pawns. To prevent the mate, the Armenian will have to force an exchange of the queens and rooks but faces the loss of his knight on d7. The win – the third against one draw and one loss – enabled the high school student of St. Francis College-Cavite to climb into a share of fourth to 11th places with 3.5 points out of a possible five. So is also only half a point behind GM Boris Grachev of Russia, who outclassed compatriot GM Sanan Sjugirov in 53 moves, and GMs Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam, who drew their match after only 14 moves. However, So faces another major test when he meets No. 24 seed GM Arman Pashikian of Armenia in the sixth round late Sunday. Pashikian, the highest of four Armenians in the field with an ELO of 2647, pulled the rug from under top seed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (ELO 2730) of France in the fifth round. The only other Filipino player in the field – GM Darwin Laylo – continued to struggle against strong opposition. Laylo, one of three Filipinos who saw action in the recent World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia last December, suffered his fourth defeat in five matches, this time to GM Josep Manu Martinez of Spain. The pride of Lipa City lost his first three matches before drawing with IM Alexander Danin of Russia in the fourth round. Laylo’s sixth-round opponent is GM Yuriy Ajrapetjan of Ukraine. - GMANews.TV