The Filipino Grand Master Wesley So battles for the top spot in the on-going 72nd Corus international chess championship group B in the Netherlands against the solo leader Dutch GM Anish Giri last Friday. Unfortunately, Pinoy Grandmaster failed to snatch the lead.

The 16-year old Wesley So played the King’s Pawn Game (e4) instead of his usual Queen’s Pawn Game (d4) and the 15-year-old Giri responded with the Petroff defense, ending the game in 36 moves.

Giri launched an attack and sacrificed his knight then his bishop to open up lines towards So’s king. So defended well but reportedly seemed to have inaccuracies.

With his loss against Giri his ranking slides down a notch to 3rd place. So has now a record of 6.5 points on 3 wins and 7 draws. He is currently tied at 3rd place with GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.

Wesley’s 12th round match is scheduled on Saturday is against England’s GM David Howell, he will be using the black pieces. On his 13th and final round match on Sunday, So will be playing against woman Grandmaster Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine using the white pieces.

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