Corus Chess 2010 round 11: Battle of Prodigies, Wesley So mated by Anish Giri

Wesley So used to be the most dominant and feared under 16 chess player in the world but that distinction suddenly put to a hold by no other another fast emerging prodigy from Europe, 15 year old Dutch champion, GM Anish Giri. Wesley So's defeat at the hands of Giri in round 11 has to be his first lost to an opponent much younger than himself in a long, long time. One need to do an intensive research to find out who was the last player, prior his loss to Anish, to ever defeated So. So may yet to be a grandmaster then, or even an international master. The other last prodigy So ever met was GM Hou Yifan of China at the 2nd Subic Individual championship last year. That game ended in a draw. Hou was then just 14 and Wesley was 15. Wesley has long been mixing up with the big boys with much success and how does it feel to be defeated by another boy prodigy must be psychologically tormenting for So. Just like any other teen age boy, he can take a lose to a grandmaster older than him but not to another child prodigy like himself. The final position of the So-Giri game is somewhat unimaginable in the caliber of So. He was mated. It's painfully humiliating for Wesley. One can feel it. But the loss to Giri may not come as a surprise to many who are following the progress of Anish Giri as well. Just like So, Giri is also one of the youngest grandmaster in history, at number twelve ever, and I've heard that a great team was formed to supervised Giri's preparation and to work closely on his progress compare to So who has only his manager to accompany him here. Wesley So should evaluate his future of forming up a team/second after this tournament.

In the 12th and penultimate round of the tournament, So will be facing yet another prodigy, Englishman David Howell, who holds the distinction for being the youngest grandmaster the United Kingdom has ever produced. Howell is half Asian by the way. His mother is originally from Singapore.

With Giri's win against So, Giri is closing in for the title of Corus B with two more rounds to play. If ever Giri wins the Corus B, he will be the youngest participant ever to be promoted to Corus A next year.

Replay the So-Giri game with GM Bong Villamayor commentaries

Chess Corus 2010 official website