Corus chess tilt: So skids in Round 12, bows out of title run

WJJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands — An endgame blunder cost Filipino grandmaster Wesley So a golden opportunity to win the Group B chess title in the 73rd Tata Steel chess championship at the de Morianne Community Center here Saturday. So dropped a crucial match to former world youth champion GM Luke McShane of England in the 12th and penultimate round, thus bowing out of contention in the race for the crown. The 17-year-old Filipino champion, who was widely expected to win the title following a smashing four-game winning streak from the fifth to the eighth rounds, missed the right continuation in a highly tactical endgame and had to resign in 40 moves of the Caro-Kann. So had to call it quits as he was facing the threat of a mate by McShane’s queen and rook or the prospect of losing his pieces just to prolong the battle. The win enabled McShane, who overtook GM Nigel Short to become England’s second highest-rated player behind GM Michael Adams in the FIDE January ratings list, to move into a two-way tie for the lead with GM David Navara of Czech Republic going into the 13th and final round Sunday. Navara, one of So’s four victims, vaulted into that tie for the lead with a decisive win over GM Friso Nijober of the Netherlands. The Czech champion had scored 4.5 points in the last five rounds since his loss to So. McShane and Navara, who both have eight points, find themselves in a virtual championship match when they play each other in the final round. A draw between the two would be enough to shut the door on So's title bid, even if he were to win his final match. So dropped from first place into a tie for fourth to seventh places with seven points, together with GMs Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia ,and Vlad Tkachiev of France. GM Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine halved the point with Le to move into solo third place with 7.5 points. On Sunday, So will try to improve his place in standings when he takes on top seed GM Radek Wojtaszek (ELO 2726) of Poland with the white pieces in the final round. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV