Wesley So started with a loss, but ended up winning the $100,000 Skilling Open online chess tournament and spoilt the 30th birthday celebration of Magnus Carlsen on Monday.
After Carlsen won with black, So took the second. The next two rapid games were drawn. In the first blitz game, So dominated and won. Carlsen could not find the much-needed win in the second blitz game and the resultant draw gave So the title.
So apologised for spoiling Carlsen’s birthday and said, “All I wanted to do was to put up a good fight and make the games interesting. But today has been my day.”
Carlsen responded, “I did some blunders like an old man today! This time I wasn’t good enough.”
The results:
Final: Set Two (rapid): Magnus Carlsen (Nor) drew with Wesley So (USA) 2-2; Tie-breaker (blitz) So bt Carlsen 1.5-0.5.
Final Standings: 1. Wesley So (USA); 2. Magnus Carlsen (Nor); 3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA); 4. Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus); 5. Levon Aronian (Arm); 6. Teimour Radjabov (Aze); 7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra); 8. Anish Giri (Ned); 9-16. Alireza Firouzja (FIDE), Liem Quang Le (Vie), Ding Liren (Chn), Vidit Gujrathi (Ind), David Anton (Esp), Peter Svidler (Rus), Sergey Karjakin (Rus) and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol), (no points).
(The top eight players qualified for the next Tour event beginning on December 26).
