Wesley So trounced fellow Super GM Baadur Jobava of Georgia in the sixth round Friday night to virtually clinch the ACP Golden Classic title in Bergamo, Italy.
The 20-year-old So hiked his total to 4.0 points, a full point up on GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel, and needs only to draw with Italian GM Sabino Brunello in the seventh and final round Saturday to top a second straight strong tournament.
So, ranked 16th in the world with his Elo 2744, also ruled the Category 19 (average Elo 2713) Capablanca Memorial in May in Cuba.
The victory over Jobava (Elo 2713) raised So’s live rating to a personal best 2757.3, good for No. 12 in the world.
So forced Jobava to resign after 37 moves of an English Defense as he was set to capture either one of Jobava’s forked rooks.
So drew with Sutovsky (Elo 2620) n the first round, beat Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (2730) and Italian GM Daniel Vocaturo (2584) in succession before settling for a draw with Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi (2693) in Round 4.