By JONAS TERRADO
Filipino-born Wesley So defeated world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to rule the inaugural Clutch Chess competition which was played through online.
Both Grandmasters were tied at 9-9 after 12 games of the finals but it was the So who earned the top purse of $40,000 (roughly P2 million) after using clutch points as a tiebreaker.
He got $30,000 for winning the event and an additional $10,000 for his clutch points won.
The world No. 8 So had six points compared to Caruana’s four.
So, who has represented the United States in chess competitions since 2014, made his way to the finals after a 9.5-8.5 triumph over Hikaru Nakamura, the world No. 1 in blitz, in the semis.
Caruana arranged a showdown with So after a 15-3 win over world No. 6 Leinier Dominguez in the other semifinal.
“I am so happy right now to win the first ever Clutch Chess tournament. It was up and down but I am so relieved on the final outcome as in a two-game blitz match anything can happen,” So said in a statement.
“I’ve had the opportunity to play some of the strongest players, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, in this new tournament,” he added.
The event was created by Grandmaster Maurice Ashley and hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club using a different scoring system.
Chess website chessbase.com said “Games 1-4 and 7-10 of the matches will be scored using the traditional method of 1 point for a win and half a point for a draw.
“Games 5, 6, 11 and 12 — the final two games each day — are worth extra points and bonus prize money for a decisive result. The new scoring system means that a match isn’t over until the very end; with six points available in the last two games, anything can happen. The games will be played with a time-limit of 10 minutes for the whole game and (five) seconds increment per move,” the website added.