Photo by Fred Lucas for the official Corus website
Wesley So was trailing Anish Giri by 1 point. They faced each other in round 11. A win by So with the White pieces would give him a share of the lead with just 2 rounds to go. Anish launched a Kingside assault against So. He even sacrificed 2 pieces. But So defended very well and basically had a winning game in his hands. But a horrible blunder by So gave Giri a checkmate in 2. This is a tough loss to swallow but it happens to everyone. Wesley just has to forget about it and focus on the next game.
So, W (2656) – Giri, A (2588) [C42]
Corus B (11), 29.01.2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0–0 Be7 8.Re1 Bg4 9.c3 f5 10.Qb3 0–0 11.Nbd2 Na5 12.Qc2 Nc6 13.b4 a6 14.a4 Bd6 15.Ba3 Kh8 16.Qb2 Ne7 17.Ne5 Bxe5 18.dxe5 Ng6 19.f3 Nxe5 20.Bf1 Qf6 21.fxe4 fxe4 22.Kh1 b5 23.Nb3 Qh4 24.Qd2 Rf5 25.Nd4 Rh5 26.h3 Rf8 27.Re3 Rf2 28.Qe1 Qf6 29.Kg1 Rf4 30.hxg4 Nxg4 31.Rh3 Rxh3 32.gxh3 Nf2 33.Qe3 Qg5+ 34.Bg2 Nd1 35.Qc1? (Qe2! +-) Qg3 36.Ne2??? Rf1+ Black wins 0–1
　
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That is unfortunate. Looks like he could have won by taking either the knight or the rook with the queen (taking the knight is better, however).
So still has a long way to go before he can compete with the Group A players…
A nice battle of the young giants.
heartbreaker.
Giri is slightly better anyway because he’s the youngest of them two.
Gosh. So was winning this ,but a simple oversight ( time pressure? ) and the game is lost!. Similar to Anand – Shirov situation, though that was harder to see given the limited amount of time. Giri sure got lucky this time. Sometimes audacity pays. As they say,this was a swindle.
Yeah, wonder if it was time pressure. I didn’t think guys at this level MADE those kind of mistakes!
No, it was not time pressure for Wesley. Quite the opposite. He had about 28 mins to Giri’s 1. Unfortunately, he has a bad habit of trying to blitz an opponent under time pressure. He got away with it once in this tournament. But not a 2nd time. This is a tough lesson for him to learn, but should help him in the long run.
Strong moves are played by a player, but bad moves are also moves that are a result of a player. Together they make the strength and weakness of a player. So lost to Giri. Giri wasn’t lucky, So made mistakes.
Yea the flip isnt SO great after all. He needs to work on his game some more before he can even think of reaching Super GM status. Giri is head and shoulders above SO. I expect a big future for Giri.
Giri is far better than So, it is this web site always praising so as if there is no other youngsters as good…. so wake up call to this blog?
Giri is the greater talent, he could be a worldchampion candidate.
Strange comment, anonymous.
So looked like he was 500 pts better than Giri until his horrible blunder.
Giri’s piece sac was B player garbage.
A nice, entertaining game… a few mistakes make it more fun to watch.
You have to admit, …Rf1 was a cool move. Not the easiest one to see if you are the opponent. Let’s call this a “Giri” 🙂
hey you anonymous people, don’t take it so seriously. a few mistakes make it entertaining for spectators.
Until that unfortunate giveaway, So was the better player in this game. It’s probably a blessing that he sees the consequence of unnecessary blitzing while he’s winning. If he keeps this lesson in mind, he will dominate Giri for the rest of their chess careers.
Terrible Blunder, I hate to see these kind of blunder from an obviously talented GM So, But it happens even to the greatest of them all. Tough to swallow as i do believe he got the title in the bag. We’ll be seeing many many more great battle from these two, and that is great for chess. It’s even more unfortunate for somebody to comment negatively against both players.
ANOS 3:16 PM
YOU COMMENT SPEAKS LOUDLY OF YOUR LOW CLASS.
BUT OF COURSE YOU THAT IS WHY YOU ARE A TWO BIT LOSER.
SHOW YOUR NAME AND WHERE YOU ARE AND WE WILL SHOW YOU HOW FILIPINOS ARE SUPERIOR TO YOU.
AND WE WILL NOT EVEN GET MANNY PACQUIAO TO BEAT YOU UP.
Take into account that it was black who máde it an interesting attacking game in the first place. All So had to do was to defend and collect, and he failed.
Maybe So was lucky in the first place he got a winning position?
No, rule out luck, a game is played from first to last move.
It was a terrible thing to watch as I did over the Internet. Wesley is a great kid and I know he must be crushed.
That said, people who think that Giri is head and shoulders better than Wesley are smokin’ dope. They’re both developing GMs and I look forward to seeing more from these two young men in the future.
As much as I’m a big fan of Wesley’s, I’m half glad he lost. The Filipino fans who were watching the games on chessdom were just obnoxious sons-a-guns and I’m glad this put a wrench in them.
anonymous 945 pm only thing flips good at is being a bakla. They are real good at that!