So loses in 8th round, drops to fourth in India chess

Standings after eight rounds:

6.5 pts — GM Fabiano Caruana (2714/ Italy)

5.0 pts — GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2676/India)

4.0 pts — GM Wesley Barbasa So (2667/Philippines), GM Viktor Laznicka (2681/Czech Republic)

2.5 pts — GM Parimarjan Negi (2622/India)

2.0 pts — GM Hou Yifan (2612/China)

INDIAN GM Parimarjan Negi (Elo 2622) stunned GM Wesley Barbasa So (Elo 2667) in the eighth round last Thursday, dropping the Filipino to joint third in the AI (Airports Authority of India) Grandmasters Chess Tournament in New Delhi, India.

Negi prevailed after 27 moves of Russian defense.

The 17-year-old So remained stuck at 4.0 points, the same output of GM Viktor Laznicka (Elo 2681) of Czech Republic who also lost to GM Krishnan Sasikiran (Elo 2676) of India after 30 moves of Queens Indian defense. Sasikiran raised his total to 5.0 points for solo second.

Meanwhile, GM Fabiano Caruana (Elo 2714/) of Italy defeated GM Hou Yifan (Elo 2612) of China after 46 moves of Sicilian defense to inch closer to the coveted title with 6.5 points with two more rounds to go in the 10-round, Category-17 tournament.

In the ninth round, So meets Hou, Sasikiran battles Negi and Caruana tackles Laznicka in the $24,500 invitational event which awards $8,000 to the champion. Correspondent MARLON bernardino