By Kristel Satumbaga
Philippine-born Grandmaster Wesley So outclassed Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 13-5, to join world champion Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals of the Clutch Chess International Tuesday.
So, who ruled the Clutch Chess Champions Showdown by beating United States teammate GM Fabiano Caruana more than a week ago, won the last two games of their 12-game duel to hack out the one-sided win.
The triumph set the 26-year-old So up against the winner between Caruana and GM Leinier Dominguez, who were playing at press time.
Carlsen, meanwhile, had a tougher time against 19-year-old American GM Jeffery Xiong before carving out an 11.5-6.5 win to arrange a duel with the winner between Russian GM Alexander Grischuk and Armenian GM Levon Aronian.
Carlsen suffered two losses at the hands of Xiong midway their match before snaring three wins in the last four games to break a 4.5-all tie and escape the upset axe.
Interestingly, the 19-year-old Xiong was once a student by US-based Filipino GM Julio Catalino Sadorra from 2013 to 2015 before the former became a full-pledged GM in 2015.
After drawing their first three games, So took Games 4 and 5 to seize a 5.5-2.5 lead on Day 1, but Vachier-Lagrave trimmed his deficit to 6.5-4.5 after snatching Game 9.
But it was Vachier-Lagrave’s last show of resistance as So took the last two games to seal the deal.
The tournament employs a unique point system as it counts one point for a win and half a point to a draw in all but Games 5 and 6, which give two points for a win and a point to a draw, and Games 11 and 12, which hands out three points for a triumph and 1.5 points to a split.
