WORLD no. 3 woodpusher Wesley So considers every game as tough in the ongoing 2017 Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.
All the players, according to So are talented and dangerous and the level of play is high.
The 23-year-old So made this observation during a break in the tournament, which will resume with round 9.
In his coming game, he will meet world no. 9 Armenian GM Levi Aronian, and will seek a win which will keep him in the solo lead.
“On this level all encounters are tough. You don’t get this high if you are a weak player. Every single player here is talented and dangerous,” said So in an online interview with the Manila Standard.
Observers noted that one of his best games in the tournament was in the fifth round when he beat Pentala Hariskrishna in 48 moves of a King’s Indian Defense.
It was described as a beautiful game on the part of So, with the game patterned after Vladimir Kramnik’s match against Ian Nepomniachtchi which was played in 2015 in Dortmund.
“Both players were following the moves of a brilliant game by Vladimir Kramnik against Ian Nepomniachtchi played in 2015 in Dortmund. They followed it, not for five or ten moves, but a full 15,” noted analyst Albert Silver on chessbase.com.
He noted that, ”So had spent one hour and 21 minutes, while Pentala Harikrishna had used up one hour and 31 minutes. Astonishing.”
The last time around, So settled for another draw with Sergey Karjakin in 22 moves of a Reti in round 8.
This kept So in the solo with 5.5 points, after he posted his fifth draw against three wins in eight matches.
But it was the game between Hungarian GM Richard Rapport and world no. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen which stole the limelight that day.
Rapport, who has been playing a so-so game, pounced on a series of errors by Carlsen to post a 33-move upset in their Reti opening game.
Because of this, Carlsen dropped out of a share of second position, allowing Pavel Eljanov and Wei Yi to move up behind So with five points.
