Filipino-American Wesley So took the long route by emerging victorious in the losers’ bracket and earned the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen in the finals of the AimChess Rapid Champions Chess Tour played in cyberspace.
Carlsen, who relinquished his classical chess world title recently to pursue other concerns, beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the winners’ bracket and will enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage against So in the grand finals early Saturday morning.
The Norwegian hero Carlsen, who just won the top purse in the SuperUnited rapid and blitz championship three days ago in Zagreb, Croatia, will be coming off a rest day after his effortless 2.5-0.5 conquest of Abdusattorov in the winners’ bracket finals.
Abdusattorov, the 18-year-old and reigning FIDE world rapid champion from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was relegated to the losers’ bracket and eventually took the challenge of the reemerging So.
It was sweet revenge for Carlsen, who was beaten by then a young 16-year-old version of Abdusattorov in the last world rapid championships in 2021.
Current classical world champion Ding Liren of China is No. 1 in the FIDE world rapid rankings with a 2830 rating. Ding didn’t join the tournament.
Carlsen has a 2824 Elo rating while So is the third highest ranked player in the world with a 2789 rating. On his way to the finals, Carlsen only had to beat Jordeen Van Forrest, Fabiano Caruana and Abdusattorov.
Having the luxury of watching So sweat it out in the extra day Friday, Carlsen and his battery of seconds, have surely readied research materials against So’s choice of opening repertoires. Rapid games are 10 minutes plus two seconds increment matches.
