Threw away an excellent chance to win

So blows chance to win, settles for draw with Sutovsky
01/27/2010 01:18 PM
GMANews.TV

WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands – GM Wesley So of the Philippines threw away an excellent chance to win for the third time in four games when he allowed former world junior champion GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel to escape with a draw in the ninth round of the 72nd Corus chess tournament at the De Morian Community Centre.

So vaulted to strong positional advantage with the advantageous white pieces and looked headed to another smashing triumph against the time-pressured Sutovsky with a clear pawn advantage in a rook and knight ending.

But the 16-year-old So missed the right continuation despite his advantage on time and allowed the Baku, Azerbaijan-born Sutovsky to force a standoff in 42 moves of the Gruendfeld.

When the truce was reached, So had a rook, knight and four pawns against the rook, knight and three pawns of the 33-year-old Sutovsky.

Chessdom.com analyst GM Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor said So obviously prepared to meet Sutovsky’s specialty Gruendfeld, a sharp opening played extensively before by world champions Bobby Fischer, Gary Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand.

But Villamayor noted that So over-extended himself and tried to blitz his way despite the obvious lack of time of Sutovsky, who is best remembered for winning the European championship in 2001.

Here is the full article.