Wesley So. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Filipino-American Wesley So tamed Dutch GM Loek van Wely in the fourth round Tuesday night to boost his rating to a personal best of Elo 2815 in the Tata Steel Masters Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.
Handling black, So beat Van Wely in 43 moves of a King’s Indian Attack to climb to 3.0 points with Norweigian world champion Magnus Carlsen, who subdued Chinese GM Wei Yi.
The top-seeded Carlsen and the second-ranked So trailed Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov, who kept top spot at 3.5 points following a victory over Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban.
Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna and Russian GM Sergei Karjakin agreed to a truce and kept their share of fourth spot at 2.5.
His 2,815 live rating, the 10th highest in history, put the Philippine-born So at world No. 3, displacing Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik (2811).
The 23-year-old So will tangle with Harikrishna while Carlsen will battle Russian GM Ian Nepomniatchi in the fifth round Thursday. —ROY LUARCA