So-Baadur match goes to tiebreaks

Wesley So. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Grandmasters Wesley So and Baadur Jobava drew their second game Wednesday night, sending their World Chess Cup 2017 fourth round encounter into tiebreaks in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The Philippine-born So, now representing the US, and local icon Jobava also drew their first game in the round of 16.

Jobava’s tough stand against So was rather surprising as their past five games outside of this $1.6 million tournament were all won by So.

If So, who totes an Elo rating of 2792 as against Jobava’s 2702, prevails, he’ll surpass his top 16 finish in the 2009 edition of the tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk when he was just 16 years old.

Thus far, only GMs Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Levon Aronian of Armenia have gained passage to the quarterfinals.

Ivanchuk beat Anish Giri of the Netherlands, 1.5-0.5, while Aronian downed Daniil Dubov of Russia by the same score.

Five other tussles, including that of France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk, will also go trough tiebreaks. —ROY LUARCA