GM Wesley So drops to second place after two-day blitz event at Saint Louis tournament

Magnus Carlsen takes solo lead

Grandmaster Wesley So got into trouble on the first of two days of the blitz portion of the 2020 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament to move from first to second and allow reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen to regain the solo lead on Friday. .

So, 26, scored just five points out of a possible nine as he was hampered by a surprising first-round loss to American Jeffrey Xiong, 19.

Xiong, who once defeated Carlsen earlier this year, trained with Filipino Grandmaster and University of Texas-Dallas coach Julio Catalino Sadorra for two years, from 2013 to 2015.

Thus he was tied for third with Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi on the first blitz day behind Carlsen with 6.5 points and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States with 5.5.

But thanks to the Cavite-born chesser first place in the rapid phase the first three days, So was not that far behind Carlsen, who is currently 18.5 points or just one point ahead of first.

So in second place, he currently has a huge lead and three points ahead of No. 3 Nepomniachtchi with 15.

The last day, which will be another nine games, of this five-day tournament with a bet of US $ 250,000 (P12.5 million) is being played at the close of this edition.