Grandmaster Wesley So absorbed two crushing defeats including one against early leader Anish Giri of the Netherlands to slip in the lower half of the standings after five rounds of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Magnus Carlsen Invitational Sunday, March 14.
So, who is playing his first tournament since gaining United States citizenship, dropped two games with the white pieces against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and Giri.
With his performance, the world Fischer Random champion and two-time US champion placed in joint ninth with Iran-born, FIDE represented Alireza Firouzja with 2.5 points.
If the preliminaries ended the same day, So would have been eliminated since only the top eight advance to the playoff round.
Good thing there are 10 rounds remaining and So, who leads the tour ahead of Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov, still has a chance to rebound from a disappointing start.
Thanks to his masterful conquest of So, Giri kept the lead with four points, half a point ahead of world classical king Magnus Carlsen, for whom the tournament is named after, and Armenian Levon Aronian.
Rounding up the top eight were Radjabov, France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the US’ Hikaru Nakamura and Russia’s Daniil Dubov.
So seeks a third title after topping the Skillings Open in November last year and the Opera Euro Rapid last month.