By virtue of finishing first place in the eliminations heading into the semifinals of the Chess.com Champions Chess Tour, Filipino-American Wesley So picked young Nodirbek Abdusattorov as his opponent at the start of high-stakes action Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) in Toronto, Canada.
Already assured of at least a $50,000 (P2.8 million) payout, So breezed past the opposition with perfect scores in his match wins against the world’s best. The champion of the CCT will receive $200,000 (P11.214 million).
The year-ending Champions Chess Tour which qualified the world’s elite players into the finals included world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana of the United States, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Iranian Alireza Firouzja (now also playing for France), Dennis Lazavik of Belarus, and Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, has a $500,000 (P28 million) prize fund.
After demolishing Nakamura in the opening round, So steamrolled past every opponent he faced including a nerve-wracking 2-1 win against Carlsen and another win by tiebreak against Abdusattorov. Even with one round left, So has already been assured of a slot in the semifinals.
So finished with six match points ahead of Carlsen and eventual qualifiers Fabiano Caruana and Abdusattorov, who had to go through the losers’ bracket to earn the right to advance to the Elite Four.
The “rapid” (15 minutes plus three seconds increment) time format is in play — instead of the classical time controls — in the Champions Chess Tour which started early this year.
The CCT has a $2 million (P112.184 million) prize fund, one of the richest in the world.
Carlsen faces Caruana in the other semifinals match with the winner getting assured of $100,000 (P5.6 million).
So’s match against Carlsen was epic.
His first game was a classic rook and pawn ending and despite being down by a pawn, So managed to hold Carlsen to a draw with a crafty rook sacrifice that forced a stalemate.
The next game ended quickly which forced a sudden-death Armageddon, where black needed only to draw to win the match despite lesser time controls.
The decider saw Carlsen sacrificing his queen, a costly mistake punished by So’s accurate counter of his queen against Carlsen’s remaining rook and bishop.
It was in the same round where Abdusattorov beat Nakamura, 2-1 and Caruana beat Lazavik, 1.5-0.5.
In the sixth round, Carlsen bounced back with a 1.5-0.5 win against Vachier-Lagrave while Caruana eventually ended Nakamura’s chances with a 2-1 win.
