Filipino-American Wesley So walked the tightrope and dodged countless bullets before disposing of Frenchman Jules Moussard in the third round of the FIDE World Cup Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan.
So, the 29-year-old whiz kid from Cavite now representing the United States, needed four extra games in the tiebreaks with faster time controls to dispose of the numerous spirited bids of Moussard, 28, to score an upset.
Moussard had several chances of beating So but didn’t find the right combinations in the highly tactical second game with time controls of 25 minutes each (plus 10 seconds increment).
He failed to reach the next round featuring the last 16 knockout matches scheduled on Wednesday.
In the third game featuring 10-minute, plus 10-second increment, So proved to possess the more steely nerves as he pounced on slight miscues to finally win with the black side of a Ruy Lopez Berlin and close out, 3.5-2.5.
So joined fellow Americans second seed Hikaru Nakamura, Leinier Dominguez and Ray Robson into the next round, along with Fabuano Caruana, the third seed, who beat Mustafa Yilmaz of Turkey, 3-1.
Four dangerous players from India and three Russians under the banner of the FIDE flag, have also advanced.
Lesser known GM Sanal Vahap ng Turkey, the 112th seed, scored a minor upset of Anton Korobov of the Ukraine, winning, 3-1. He will face another Ukrainian, Vasyl Ivanchuk, in Section 2 pairings.
There were originally 206 qualifiers who were assigned to one of the 16 different sections of the World Cup.
