Corus Chess 2010 R5: Wesley So scores his first win

For grandmaster Wesley So, notching his first victory after 5 rounds in the Corus 2010, B group, against Romania's Livieu-Dieter Nisipeanu is like finally finding an oasis in the middle of a vast, barren desert. With mounting pressure from fans with his five consecutive draws, the win is definitely a refresher, made more sweeter as his victory came from no other than the 2nd seed of the group and long time Romania's number one player that is Nisipeanu. Wesley So had already faced the top three seeded players and some of the biggest names in Corus B, a category 16 tournament. The win moves Wesley in tie for fourth place with 3 1/2 points, half a point behind the 2nd place Ni Hua and l'Ami (4.0) and a point and an a half with the current leader, 15 year old Anish Giri (5.0) who has gone so far with 5.0/6.0 and with a performance rating of 2926.

Wesley So wins a pawn in the 17th move of Reti opening and he never looks back. White was backing with his pair of bishops against So's pair of knights. But the knights maneuvers towards the white king proves to be more decisive. Wesley So picks up two more pawns in the ensuing moves until Nisipeanu, under severe time trouble, commits his final mistake after the 35th move (35...Bf1) by shielding his king from a rook check with his bishop instead of simply capturing the black's knight on f2. So will be facing 13th seed, GM Dimitri Reinderman in the seventh round and is currently occupying the last spot in the group.

Standings after 6 rounds

1. A. Giri 5
2. Ni, E. l'Ami 4
4. D. Howell, A. Naiditsch, W. So
P. Harikrishna 3½
8. P. Negi 3
9. E. Sutovsky, T. Nyback 2½
11. A. Muzychuk, L. Nisipeanu 2
13. V. Akobian, D. Reinderman 1½


Important links

Replay of Nisipeanu-So game with GM Villamayor analysis.

Corus 2010 official website

Real time live games from Corus 2010 with computer and grandmaster analysis.