By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Wesley So delivered a performance to remember, stunning World No. 1 and former world champion Magnus Carlsen, 2-1, in their Armageddon duel in the fifth round of the Champions Chess Tour Finals in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday, Dec. 12.
The Cavite-born So, who now represents the United States and is ranked No. 6 in the world, beat the Norwegian superstar in 59 moves of a Sicilian Defense which proved enough to boost his morale and secured another match victory in the six round over Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
The back-to-back wins catapulted So to the top with six points as he currently battling US teammate Fabiano Caruana in the seventh and final round.
Carlsen, for his part, bounced back from that  defeat with a 1.5-0.5 thrashing of France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to remain at second with five points, one point behind So.
The win also secured So one of the six berths to the next phase where he was joined Carlsen, Caruana (4 points) and Abdusattorov (3 points) with the last two seats being contested by American Hikaru Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave, Iran-born Alireza Firouzja of France and Belarussian Denis Lazavik.
While he was impressive against Carlsen, So was pushed to the edge by Abdusattorov, who appeared headed to denting the former’s perfect record with a deadly active pair of bishops.
But the Uzbek failed to sustain his edge, allowing the So to escape with the match-clinching draw in this event that is staking a total pot of $500,000 including $200,000 to the winner.