Grandmaster Wesley So cemented his hold on the top spot after dumping his Polish foe yesterday in the 10th round of the Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan zee, Netherlands.
The Filipino-born So dominated GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in 34 moves of an English duel to hike his tally to 7 points, one point ahead of joint second placers GM Levon Aronian of Armenia, reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway, GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia, and GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine.
Representing the United States, So currently now has four wins and five draws. It was his first victory after posting four straight draws.
The win also improved So’s live ELO rating to 2820 at No. 3 in the world, just four points behind world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of the United States.
Meanwhile, Aronian beat GM Richard Rapport of Hungary, Karjakin downed GM Dmitri Andreikin of Russia, Eljanov drew with Chinese GM Yi Wei, and Carlsen split the point with Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna to trail behind So.
The tournament takes another break before So resumes his title campaign when he meets Andreikin in the 11th round of this 13-round event.
