BY KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Grandmaster Wesley So continued his dominance over world classical champion Magnus Carlsen with a fifth-round win and then drew with World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana in the sixth to stay in title contention in the 2020 Champions Showdown: Chess9LX (Fischer Random) done online Saturday.
The Philippine-born So, who now represents the United States, is currently in a three-way tie for second with Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States with four points apiece.
Armenian Levon Aronian turned back the US’ Leinier Dominguez-Perez to seize the solo lead with 4.5 points.
Although Carlsen is the reigning titlist in standard, rapid and blitz, So still holds an advantage over the former in Fischer Random being its present world champion.
In fact, So obliterated Carlsen, 13.5-2.5, in the finals to crown himself the first champion of the chess event invented by the late great former world chess king Robert James Fischer.
So still has a chance of winning this nine-round tournament as he still has three games left against Nakamura, Russian Gary Kasparov, a former world champion, and Iranian Alireza Firouzja.
