FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So bounced back from a first-round loss to Maxime Vachier Lagrave with a 42-move win over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the second round of the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri.
So, who dropped to no. 3 in the FIDE rankings, won in 39 moves of an English Opening.
Analysts said Nepomniachtchi proved no match for So, who scored his first victory with black pieces and after he won a pawn and reaching a rook endgame.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand is in the lead after he played out another draw with Peter Svidler of Russia.
In the first round, So took a 43-move setback to Lagrave in their Guioco Piano game.
In this game, So’s mistake was opening up the center, allowing his opponent’s pieces to attack the weakened the support for the king.
Vachier-Lagrave then used his light square bishop to capture the b7 pawn, and forced So to resign.
Meanwhile, Janelle Mae Frayna suffered her second straight defeat, this time against Latvian Linda Kruminda to slide out of the top 20 after seven rounds of the Women’s International Open in Erfurt, Germany Thursday night.
The loss came a day after Frayna, 21, fell to fourth seed and fellow Woman Grandmaster Evgeniya Doluhanova of Ukraine that sent her outside the top 10.
The pair of stinging setbacks kept country’s Olympiad top board player stranded with a score of 3.5 points, which was good for 25th to 34th spots.