Wesley So has won his semifinals matches and will next aim to win the FIDE Grand Prix Berlin championship, the third leg of the chess tournament being played in Germany.
Filipino American Grandmaster Wesley So won his group matches and faced Amin Tabatabaei of Iran in the semifinals, won the first semis game, but lost the second game which forced the match to go into tiebreaks.
The Filipino-born champion played two tiebreak mini-matches against the Iranian on April 2 Manila time (April 1 in Berlin).
Wesley So, the three-time and reigning United States Chess Champion, decisively won both mini-matches against the Iranian, 2-0, to secure a finals berth against fellow American Grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura who also won his tiebreaker matches against Azerbaijani Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
The all-American Grand Prix Berlin two-game finals will take place from April 2-4 with Wesley So taking the white chess pieces in the first game.
In a post-game report by event organizer World Chess, Wesley So spoke about his opponent in the Grand Prix Berlin final, Hikaru Nakamura: “He is very determined and it seems like he is getting back to this old 2800 level form, so it’s going to be a very tough match. Also, the way that he beat Shakhriyar today was very convincing, I must say.”
The FIDE Grand Prix 2022 is a series of three chess tournaments where 24 of the world’s top players took part. The Series organized by World Chess is the final qualifier for the upcoming Candidates Tournament.
The top two finishers have already been determined by the points system from the first leg to the current leg – Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport will go on to the Candidates Tournament 2022 to determine who will face World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship 2023.
Wesley So was the leading challenger to World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway during the 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The 28-year-old Philippine chess champion is the inaugural and current World Fischer Random Chess Champion who bested Carlsen in his home turf, Norway.
SEND WELL WISHES in the comments below to Wesley So as he aims to win the FIDE Grand Prix Berlin 2022! WATCH the game on April 2 on WorldChess on YouTube here:
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