Published December 30, 2020, 12:55 PM
Grandmaster Wesley So lost with the white pieces twice to France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and dropped the first of two four-game quarterfinal matches, 3-1, in the Airthings Masters of the Champions Chess Tour Wednesday.
The 27-year-old So yielded to the Sicilian Defense of Vachier-Lagrave in the second and fourth games while drawing the first and third games in a pair of Ruy Lopez games that allowed his French rival to gain the upper hand.
So, who came into the quarters as the second seed after a solid, undefeated performance in the preliminaries, will need to take the final mini match set Thursday to knot their duel and force a deciding tiebreak showdown.
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