So posts 2nd straight win in Corus chess meet

WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands – GM Wesley So of the Philippines made it two in a row in the 72nd Corus chess tournament Saturday (Sunday in Manila), pulling off a decisive seventh-round win over GM Dimitri Reinderman of the Netherlands at the wind-swept De Moriaan Community Centre. Buoyed by a breakthrough win over former European champion GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania in the sixth round Friday, the sixth-seeded So wisely steered the game out of the book line and methodically cut down his lower-rated Dutch opponent with two bishops and a passed pawn in the end game.

The end came for Reinderman in 36 moves of the Dutch Defense Stonewall Variation with So threatening to capture one of his opponent’s two rooks with a deadly bishop push to b5. Chessdom.com analyst GM Buenaventura “Bong" Villamayor said So played exceptionally well considering “he only encountered the Dutch Defense only once since 2004 - in his second game against GM Gata Kamsky during the 2009 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk which ended in a draw." “After Wesley’s 29. Rc1, he already had clear advantage due to passed pawn and two bishops and needed only to consolidate," Villamayor noted. Overall, So vaulted into a tie for second to fifth places with 4.5 points, only a full point behind hometown hero GM Anish Giri, who halved the point with compatriot GM Erwin l’Ami. Tied with So for second to fifth places in the 14-player, category-16 tournament were GM David Howell of England, GM Ni Hua of China and l’Ami. Howell pulled off the only other win during the seventh round, beating GM Tomi Nyback of Finland. Ni drew his match with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany. Naiditsch, who drew with So in the opening round, now shared sixth and seventh spot with GM Pentala Harikrishna of India. So gets another big test in the eighth round Sunday, playing black against Ni. Giri, the 15-year-old Dutch champion, battles Howell in another keenly-anticipated match. - GMANews.TV