Grandmaster Wesley So finished in fourth place behind eventual champion and fellow American Hikaru Nakamura in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz of the Grand Chess Tour on Sunday.
So finished with 4.5 points in the last nine of the 18-round blitz section for an 18.5-point total behind Nakamura’s 23.5-point performance.
United States’ Fabiano Caruana came in second with 20 points while Hungary’s Richard Rapport settled for third with 19 points.
In the last day of the blitz event, So prevailed over American Leiner Dominguez-Perez and Sam Shankland to make up for his defeat at the hands of Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
He drew with Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem, Nakamura, Caruana, the US’ Jeffery Xiong and Russia’s Peter Svidler.
Overall, So scored nine points in the rapid event and five in the first of the two-blitz part.
The Cavite-born woodpusher pocketed $15,000 (around P758,000) for his feat along with seven Tour points, enough for him to leapfrog France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave for the overall tour lead with 28.5 points.
So will have a one-day breather before he plunges back into action in the $325,000 Sinquefield Cup, a 10-player classical tournament set to unfurl on Wednesday also in Saint Louis, Missouri.