GM WESLEY SO

WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands — Grandmaster Wesley So threw away what appeared to be the winning line, losing to GM Anish Giri of Netherlands in the 11th round of the Corus chess tournament at the De Moriane Comunity Centre.

So defended very well against Giri’s relentless kingside attack but he blundered in the end game allowing Giri to checkmate him with a rook and queen in two moves and keep his solo lead.

The win enabled Giri, the 15-year-old, Russian-born son of a Nepalese hydrologist working in a research firm in the Dutch capital, to widen his lead to a full point with only two rounds remaining.

Giri, who will turn 16 on June 28, now has eight points, a full point ahead of GM Ni Hua of China and GM Erwin l’Ami of the Netherlands.

Ni halved the point with GM Pentala Harikirshna of India, while Ami split the point with IM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia.

So, on the other hand, dropped to a share of fourth with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany.