Grandmaster Wesley So and his United States team survived a shock seventh-round meltdown 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 at the hands of GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda that resulted in a stunning 2.5-3.5 defeat by the top-seeded Americans to the lower-ranked Polish.
The US also faced rough sailing against 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.
So is the Filipinos’ final hope at glory after the Philippine team headed by GM Mark Paragua and world IPCA champion FIDE Master Sander Severino’s squad all capsized in Division II last week.
The preliminary round of the knockout phase is set Thursday while So and US will get on board when the quarters unfold the next day.