Wesley So absorbed a second straight defeat and watched Magnus Carlsen virtually clinch the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Grand Final crown Saturday despite two rounds left in the online tournament.

So bowed to Armenia’s Levon Aronian, 2.5-1.5, to keep him in second with 21.5 points while Carlsen put up enough cushion to capture the crown despite yielding to Azerbaijan’s Teimur Radjabov, 3-1, in the seventh round.

Carlsen, who currently has 28.5 points, leads So by seven points to render the last two rounds non-bearing.

The victory earned the Norwegian superstar $100,000 to add to the $215,000 he has accumulated from the previous legs.

So, who needed to win the round to remain in the title race, failed to capitalize that advantage as he absorbed back-to-back game defeats against Aronian.

His chance of extending their duel to a tiebreak flickered out after settling for a draw in the third game, giving Aronian the match victory.

Meanwhile, Radjabov’s triumph over Carlsen inched him closer to So after improving to 21 points for third place.

Aronian is at fourth with 18.

In other matches, American Hikaru Nakamura is at fifth with 16 after a 2-1 tiebreak win over France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, whose loss tied him with Russian Vladislav Artemiev with 13.5 points.

Anish Giri is at eighth with 11.5 points after losing to Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2.5-1.5, while Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda improved to 11 points at ninth after a 2.5-1.5 win over Artemiev.

Mamedyarov is at 10^th with 9.5 points.

So clashes with Duda in the eighth round before facing Carlsen in the final round.