Filipino GM Wesley So scored a crucial win with the black pieces against GM Tomi Nyb?ck of Finland in the tenth round of the Corus B tournament in Holland last Wednesday. Nyback opened with d4 and So responded with his favorite Slav defense.
Nyb?ck went all out in his attack as he sacrificed a piece in his 33rd move. But So coolly defended and the Finnish grandmaster capitulated after 46 moves. The game ended with So having material advantage with a bishop, two rooks a queen and four pawns against Nyback?s two rooks, queen and six pawns.
The players will have a day off Thursday.
Going into the eleventh round of the tournament, So had 6 ? points and shared second place together with Ni Hua of China and Erwin L’Ami of Holland. They trailed leader Anish Giri of Holland by a half a point.
Giri drew his tenth round game against Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.
Filipino chess enthusiasts will be on the edge of their seats this Friday night (Manila Time) as So will play Giri using the white pieces.
Gm So?s other remaining games are against David Howell on Saturday and his final game this Sunday will be against female GM Anna Muzychuk, who dealt Giri his only loss so far last Tuesday.
Standings after 10 rounds:
1. A. Giri 7 2. Ni 6.5, E. l’Ami 6.5, So 6.5 5. A. Naiditsch 6 6. P. Negi 5.5 7. P. Harikrishna 5, D. Howell 5 9. E. Sutovsky 4.5, A. Muzychuk 4.5 11. L. Nisipeanu 4 12. D. Reinderman 3.5 13. T. Nyback 3 14. V. Akobian 2.5
