So forges semis duel with Ding

Wesley So labored long and hard to down Russian Vladimir Fedoseev in their second game Saturday night and advance to the semifinals of World Chess Cup 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The victory with white, which came after 83 moves of a Petroff Defense, gave So (Elo 2792) a 1.5-0.5 decision over the lower-ranked Fedoseev (2731) and a two-game semifinals collision with Chinese Ding Liren, who beat Hungarian Richard Rapport by the same score.

Ding should be a dangerous foe for So as he’s a three-time China national champion and holds an even record against the former Philippine champion now playing for the US.

In their four-game match last April, Ding bested So, 2.5-1.5.

Also in the round of four is Armenian Levon Aronian, who trounced Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk, 1.5-0.5.

Aronian will wait for the winner of the other quarterfinal pairing pitting Russia’s Peter Svidler against France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who drew their first two games and will have to go through tiebreakers. —ROY LUARCA