By Kristel Satumbaga
Grandmaster Wesley So and his United States teammates bucked a shock seventh-round defeat to rule Pool D of the top division and earn an outright spot to the quarterfinals of the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad Sunday.
Playing Board One minus GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, the Cavite-born So faced some struggles and scored six points out of nine on four victories and the same number of draws with one defeat.
That setback came in the seventh round when the Americans suffered a 2.5-3.5 defeat to the lower-ranked Polish squad.
The US squad was also Peru in the eighth and penultimate round following an upset 3-3 draw with So splitting the point with GM Emilio Cordova.
The 2016 Baku Olympiad champions destroyed the Canadians, 5.5-.5, in the final round to end up tied with the Greeks with 15 match points apiece.
But US took the Pool D title and the direct slot to the quarters after emerging with a better tiebreak against Greece and will join Pool A winner India, Pool B’s Azerbaijan and Pool C’s Russia there.
