Grandmaster Wesley So inched closer to solo leader Magnus Carlsen despite coming off a defeat at the hands of fellow United States bet Hikaru Nakamura after four rounds in the Meltwater Champions Chess tour Grand Finals Tuesday.
So drew all his four games in regulation then lost the two-blitz playoff tiebreakers to Nakamura, 2-0, while Carlsen yielded to Russian Vladislav Artemiev, 3-1, in the regulation.
So’s tiebreaker defeat, however, gained him one point while Carlsen ended up with nothing under the tournament format.
With this, So improved to 19.5 points while Carlsen remained at 23.5 with five rounds left in the tournament.
So will next face Netherlands’ Anish Giri, who is at sixth place with 9.5 points after losing to Armenia’s Levon Aronian, 3-1.
Aronian remained at third with 15 points after that win over Giri, while Nakamura ties with Azerbaijan’s Teimur Radjabov with 12 points.
Russian Vladislav Artemiev and French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are at seventh and eighth places with identical 8.5 points, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has 5.5 points while Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda slips to 5 points.