FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So admitted that he did not play his best games in the 5th Sinquefield Cup 2017 Grand Chess Tour in Saint Louis, Missouri.
So said this after he finished with one win, four draws and four losses to settle for last place with three points.
This also led to a big drop in his world rankings, which saw So drop from second place in the FIDE classifications to no. 8 overall.
He now has an ELO rating of 2798.9 in the livechess ratings.
And that’s after he finished his campaign with a draw in 33 moves of a Nimzo Indian Defense with Indian GM Viswanathan Anand.
The 23-year-old So said he was shaken after he took a 63-move setback in his Guico Piano game the other day with GM Sergey Karjakin.
“After that game yesterday I figured enough is enough of this tournament and I really cannot play good chess here, this time, unfortunately. But I still like to thank the Lord for all the experience that he’s given me and for giving me a career,” said So in an interview with chess.com.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scored his career’s best performance by winning the tournament.
Lagrave ended his sortie with six points, and after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in 52 moves of a Sicilian Defense.
GM Magnus Carlsen, who stayed at no. 1 with an ELO of 2827.2 in the livechess ratings, is second with Anand with both sharing 5.5 points.
That’s after Carlsen prevailed over Levon Aronian in 52 moves of a Ruy Lopez.
Lagrave is now ranked at no. 2 with 2803.9, followed by Vladimir Kramnik (2803) and Aronian (2802.4).
Fabiano Caruana (2799.2), who lost to Peter Svidler in 44 moves of an English Opening, is in fifth.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is sixth with 2797, followed by Anand (2793).
