By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Grandmaster Wesley So suffered a cruoooshing 2.5-0.5 beating to tournament champion Magnus Carlsen, 2.5-0.5, in the ninth and final round and settled for fourth place in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Grand Finals Monday (Tuesday in Manila).
Carlsen disarmed So right in the first game before they halved the point in their second match.
The Norwegian capped his impressive showing by beating So in the third to finish with 31.5 points, including 16.5 points that he accumulated in the previous legs.
Running second since the start of the finale, So was even overtaken Armenia’s Levon Aronian for third as he tallied only 23.5 points.
Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov claimed 3 points following his 2.5-0.5 win over France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to claim second with 27 points while Aronian beat So by 0.5 point after crushing Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2.5-0.5.
Other Round 9 matches saw United States’ Hikaru Nakamura thumping Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, 3-1, and Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev beating Netherlands’ Anish Giri, 2.5-1.5.
Nakamura claimed fifth with 21 points, followed by Artemiev (17.5), Giri (14.5), Vachier-Lagrave (13.5), Duda (12) and Mamedyarov (9.5).
