After several failed attempts, Grandmaster Wesley So finally toppled world No. 5 and defending champion GM Levon Aronian of Armenia to forge a four-way tie for third place after three rounds in the 77th Tata Steel Masters in The Hague, Netherlands.
So, who is representing the United States, pounced on a blunder by Aronian in the middle game to fashion out a brilliant 53-move victory of a Scotch game to become the highest ranked player in the US at No. 9 with an ELO rating of 2777.3.
The win likewise enabled So to tie French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Chinese GM Ding Liren and Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek – all with two points.
More importantly, So avenged his defeat to Aronian in the same tournament last year. “It’s my first win over Aronian,” said So in an interview with chessbase.com. So halved the point with Wojtaszek and reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the first two rounds.
“The opening and position was very complicated by then before he blundered. He probably miscalculated something, somewhere,” he added.(K. Satumbaga,mb. com)