Grandmaster Wesley So outlasted fellow American Dariusz Swiercz to grab a piece of the lead after two rounds in the Grand Chess Tour Sinquefield Cup 2021 in Saint Louis, Missouri Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).
So needed 45 moves of a Ruy Lopez Berlin Defense to prevail over Swiercz and forge a four-way logjam on top with United States’ Fabiano Caruana and Leiner Dominguez Perez and France’s Maxime Vachier Lagrave with 1.5 points each.
The win also redeemed So’s opening-round game against Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov where he settled for a draw after blowing what could have been an easy victory.
The Cavite-born So is expected to ride the crest of this triumph when he clashes with Russia’s Peter Svidler in the third round Thursday.
Svidler currently totes 0.5 points along with American Sam Shankland in this nine-round tournament staking $325,000.
Trailing the leaders with one point apiece were Mamedyarov, Hungarian Richard Rapport and American Jeffery Xiong.