BIEL, Switzerland — Grandmaser Wesley So’s title bid was left in tatters after losing to old rival GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the eighth and penultimate round of the 2010 Biel Young Grandmasters chess championship at the Congress Centre Tuesday here.

So, one of the pre-tournament favorites in this 10-player, category-17 tournament, could have basically earned a draw but sought victory and ended up losing the intense king and pawn endgame to a player who also beat him last year in an almost identical situation.

The end came in 44 moves of the Four Knights variation of the English opening after the time-pressured Giri gained enough tempo with his adept king moves.

Giri, the 16-year-old son of a Nepalese father and a Russian mother who migrated to the Netherlands two years ago, was set to break through with his two connected pawns on the c and d files when his higher-rated Filipino rival resigned.

The loss virtually ended So’s hopes for his first major title this year, leaving top seed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and fifth round tormentor GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy with the best chance of winning the prestigious trophy.

So dropped in a tie for fifth to eighth places with Giri, GM Evgeny Tomashevsky and GM Maxim Rodshtein with four points.