By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Grandmaster Wesley So halved the point with fellow American Leinier Dominguez Perez and finished third in the Sinquefield Cup of the Grand Chess Tour in Saint Louis, Missouri Thursday (Friday in Manila).
So agreed to a draw after 35 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Accepted and wound up with 5.5 points on two wins and seven draws.
His feat – worth $45,000 (roughly P2.25 million) – was enough to officially secure the Grand Chess Tour overall crown.
He secured the GTC title after finishing third in the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest Romania in June, first in the Paris Rapid & Blitz in France the same month and third in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz over a week ago.
For this, So also went home with an additional $100,000 bonus (roughly P5 million).
So had actually clinched the crown the day before after splitting the point with France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Vachier-Grave, who drew with Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in 24 moves of a Gruenfeld, eventually captured the Sinquefield Cup title with 6 points ahead of United States’ Fabiano Caruana, So and Dominguez Perez with 5.5 points.
