So trounces top-seeded Dominguez, nears crown

Standings after 8 rounds 5.5 points—W. So(PH); 4.5—L. Bruzon (Cub); 4.0—L. Dominguez (Cub); 3.5—F. Vallejo Pons (Esp), Z. Almasi; 3.0—V. Ivanchuk (Ukr)

Filipino sensation Grandmaster Wesley So trounced top seed Cuban GM Leiner Dominguez in the eighth round Friday (Saturday in Manila) to inch closer toward the Capablanca Memorial 2014 crown in Havana, Cuba.

Handling white, So forced Dominguez to resign in the 64th move of a Sicilian Najdorf with one of his three pawns on the verge of queening.

Both Dominguez, who has one pawn, and So have a knight each. His third victory in the Category 19 (average Elo 2721) raised So’s total to 5.5 points, a full point ahead of another Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon, who beat Spanish GM Francisco Pons Vallejo.

The 20-year-old So needs only to draw his last two games against Ukarinian GM Vassily Ivanchuk and Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi, respectively, to pocket the title in the elite six-man, double round-robin tournament.

Almasi and Ivanchuk drew their eighth round match and are out of contention with 3.5 and 3.0 points, respectively.

Following his conquest of Dominguez, the world No. 10 with a 2768 Elo, So padded his live rating to 2744.6, catapulting him from 19th to 15th in the world.

Thus far, So has a phenomenal performance rating of 2859 points in the 49th edition of the annual event honoring one of the world’s greatest chess players ever.