World Junior Chess Championship Round 10: Wesley So crushed Howell, now just half a point behind the new leader.

Getting serious as everybody now is beginning to feel his presence.

The strategy is working. GM Wesley So is slowly making his move in the latter rounds of the tournament and defeated GM David Howell (2561) of England in round 10 to finally barge into top three in the standings for the first time with three more rounds left to play. With the win, So has now garnered 7 1/2 points and move just even more closer with the new leader, Rodsthein Maxim (2605) of Israel who defeated the erstwhile leader IM Braun Arik of Germany. Wesley will next face the former leader of the tourney and co-sharer of the second to third spot, IM Braun Arik (2533) of Germany who, just like Howell, are obviously pressure weary from handling most of the top spots. Meanwhile Haridas Pascua drew his 10 round assignment against FM Kjartansson Gudmundur (2328) and will be up against Russian Kulakov Viacheslav (2360) in the 11th round.

Replay the game HERE

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- Photo courtesy of WJCC2008

Rank after round 10
Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Fide	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	2	GM	RODSHTEIN Maxim	2605	ISR	8	41	13	2474	2710
2	23	IM	BRAUN Arik	2533	GER	7½	45	23	2513	2706
3	11	GM	SO Wesley	2577	PHI	7½	40	14	2493	2686
4	6	GM	LI Chao B	2590	CHN	7	44½	10	2519	2668
	14	GM	HOWELL David	2561	ENG	7	44½	14	2513	2662
6	28	GM	SAFARLI Eltaj	2527	AZE	7	43½	19	2510	2659
7	25	GM	BRKIC Ante	2530	CRO	7	39½	20	2527	2676
8	9	GM	NGUYEN Ngoc Truong Son	2579	VIE	7	38½	7	2480	2629
9	19	GM	GUPTA Abhijeet	2551	IND	7	38	5	2439	2588
10	26	GM	NEGI Parimerjan	2529	IND	7	37½	12	2463	2612
11	24	GM	RAMIREZ Alejandro	2531	CRC	7	36½	9	2438	2582
12	36	IM	BOROS Denes	2472	HUN	7	34½	13	2410	2552
13	16	WGM	HOU Yifan	2557	CHN	6½	41½	7	2496	2606
14	29	IM	MELKUMYAN Hrant	2507	ARM	6½	38	13	2482	2592
15	10	GM	LE QUANG Liem	2577	VIE	6½	36½	-2	2441	2539
16	1	GM	MAMEDOV Rauf	2627	AZE	6½	34	-9	2443	2553
17	20	GM	POPOV Ivan	2549	RUS	6	40	-1	2464	2536
18	34	IM	SANIKIDZE Tornike	2486	GEO	6	38½	14	2510	2576
19	17	IM	KRAVTSIV Martyn	2555	UKR	6	37	-4	2451	2523
20	33	GM	WEN Yang	2487	CHN	6	36½	6	2445	2514
21	8	GM	ZHIGALKO Sergei	2583	BLR	6	36	-3	2487	2559
	13	GM	AMIN Bassem	2561	EGY	6	36	-4	2452	2524
23	31	IM	ARUN Prasad Subramanian	2492	IND	6	35½	0	2402	2468
24	3	GM	ANDREIKIN Dmitry	2604	RUS	6	35	-9	2452	2516
25	30	IM	HAMMER Jon Ludvig	2494	NOR	6	34½	-1	2405	2477
26	37	IM	CAN Emre	2460	TUR	6	33½	11	2469	2541
27	7	GM	LENIC Luka	2584	SLO	6	33	-11	2424	2496
	27	GM	RAGGER Markus	2527	AUT	6	33	-8	2383	2446
29	21	IM	SJUGIROV Sanan	2545	RUS	6	32	-8	2401	2472
	40	IM	SENGUPTA Deep	2454	IND	6	32	7	2420	2473
	48	FM	TOUFIGHI Tamijani Homayoon	2425	IRI	6	32	10	2464	2430
32	12	GM	GEETHA Narayanan Gopal	2572	IND	6	31½	-14	2384	2450
	15	GM	ITURRIZAGA Bonelli Eduardo Pat	2561	VEN	6	31½	-14	2366	2419
34	55	IM	KARTHIKEYAN Pandian	2402	IND	6	29½	5	2398	2370
35	53	IM	DURARBEYLI Vasif	2413	AZE	6	28	-7	2305	2287