So loses anew, drops title bid

BIEL, SWITZERLAND—Filipino hope Wesley So lost another heartbreaker to Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the eighth round Tuesday and dropped out of contention in the 2010 Biel Young Grandmasters chess championship at the Congress Centre.

Handling black, So threw caution to the wind to avoid an impending draw in the king and pawn endgame but the ploy backfired as the time-pressured Giri gained tempo with his adept king moves.

Giri, the 16-year-old son of a Nepalese father and a Russian mother, was set to break through with his two connected pawns on the c and d files when So resigned after 44 moves of the Four Knights variation of the English opening.

With his second loss, So dropped to a share of fifth to eighth places with 4.0 points, leaving defending champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Fabiano Caruana of Italy with the best chance of winning the title.

The heart-breaking setback recalled a similar incident when So also dropped a virtually won game against Giri during the 2010 Corus Group B tournament in Wijk ann Zee, Netherlands, on Jan. 29.