Grandmaster Wesley So survived Polish foe Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the tiebreaker, 1.5-0.5, but slipped to third place after the eighth and penultimate round of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Grand Finals Sunday (Monday in Manila).
With Magnus Carlsen already assured of the title, the race for the runner-up honors continued as So skidded behind Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov after managing only with two points with his tiebreak victory to improve to only 23.5 points.
The Cavite-born American drew all his four regulation matches before scoring a victory in the first tiebreak game. He settled for another draw in the second, but it was enough to give him the matchup victory.
Radjabov, who is coming off a morale-bossing seventh-round win over Carlsen, downed compatriot Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2.5-1.5, in the regulation to earn three points and gain half a point ahead of So with 24 points.
Armenia’s Levon Aronian is currently at fourth with 21 points following a 3-1 win over Carlsen, while United States’ Hikaru Nakamura is at fifth with 18 points after a 1.5-0.5 tiebreak triumph over Russian Vladislav Artemiev.
Artemiev is tied at sixth to seventh with 14.5 points with Netherlands’ Anish Giri, who prevailed over France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the regulation, 2.5-1.5.
Completing the standings were Vachier-Lagrave (13.5), Duda (12) and Mamedyarov (9.5).
Carlsen virtually clinched the crown after seven rounds with enough cushion heading into the remaining rounds. He currently totes 28.5 points, four points ahead of Radjabov.
So and Carlsen clash in the final round.