Of risk and perfection

GM Wesley So played a very risky game in Round 5 of Aeroflot Open 2010 against Armenia GM Hrant Melkumyan (2583), giving up a Rook for a Bishop and then a Rook for the position. He convincingly won - in an entertaining fashion.

He then played flawlessly (without any Rybka's red) in Round 6 against another Armenian GM Arman Pashikian (2647). Yet, the game ended up in a draw, only highlighted by Wesley's spectacular 30.Nd5!

Isn't chess an enigma, a mystery no man has ever fathomed yet?

After six rounds of play, Wesley has gained some 5.6 Elo points in the tournament, putting his LIVE RATING at 2666.3, only 33.7 points shy off the 2700-mark. Please take not that I have launched a monitoring track called PROJECT 2700 (at the sidebar of this blog) to track Wesley's LIVE RATING on his road to the 2700-mark.

Here's the breakdown of this Elo performance:

Round 1 vs Maghami -0.9 = 2659.8
Round 2 vs Bocharov +4.1 = 2663.9
Round 3 vs Nguyen -5.6 = 2658.3
Round 4 vs Rakhmanov +4.1 = 2662.4
Round 5 vs Melkumyan +4.0 = 2666.4
Round 6 vs Pashikian -.1 = 2666.3

Watch his Round 5 and Round 6 games:
REQUIRES JAVA:





PGNs:

[Event "Aeroflot Open"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2010.02.13"]
[EventDate "2010.02.09"]
[Round "5"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "H Melkumyan"]
[Black "W So"]
[ECO "D15"]
[WhiteElo "2583"]
[BlackElo "2656"]
[PlyCount "78"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. e3 a6 5. Nf3 b5 6. b3 Bg4 7. Be2 e6 8. h3
Bh5 9. g4 Bg6 10. Ne5 Nfd7 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. Qc2 Be7 13. Bd2 Qc7 14. c5 e5
15. f4 Bh4+ 16. Kf1 exd4 17. exd4 b4 18. Na4 O-O 19. Kg2 Re8 20. Bd3 Nf8
21. Nb6 Ra7 22. Be1 Rxe1 23. Rhxe1 Qxf4 24. Re8 Qg3+ 25. Kh1 Qxh3+ 26. Qh2
Qf3+ 27. Kg1 Qxg4+ 28. Kh1 Qf3+ 29. Kg1 Qg4+ 30. Kh1 Re7 31. Rxb8 Qf3+ 32.
Kg1 Qg4+ 33. Kh1 f5 34. Rg1 Qf3+ 35. Qg2 Qxd3 36. Qh2 Re2 37. Rxf8+ Kxf8
38. Nd7+ Ke8 39. Qb8+ Bd8 0-1

[Event "Aeroflot Open"]
[Site "Moscow RUS"]
[Date "2010.02.14"]
[EventDate "2010.02.09"]
[Round "6"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[White "W So"]
[Black "A Pashikian"]
[ECO "D43"]
[WhiteElo "2656"]
[BlackElo "2647"]
[PlyCount "104"]

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 e6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8.
Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. O-O Nbd7 11. Ne5 h5 12. Nxd7 Qxd7 13. Be5 Rh6 14. Qc1
Rg6 15. Rd1 Qe7 16. a4 a6 17. Qe3 Nd7 18. Bxh5 Rh6 19. Qf3 O-O-O 20. h3
Nxe5 21. dxe5 Rxd1+ 22. Rxd1 Bg7 23. axb5 axb5 24. Bxf7 Bxe5 25. Bh5 Rh8
26. Bg4 Rd8 27. Rxd8+ Kxd8 28. Qe3 Qf6 29. Qc5 Kd7 30. Nd5 cxd5 31. exd5
Bd4 32. dxe6+ Ke8 33. Bh5+ Kd8 34. e7+ Qxe7 35. Qxd4+ Kc7 36. Kf1 Qe4 37.
Qxe4 Bxe4 38. g3 b4 39. Bf7 c3 40. bxc3 bxc3 41. Ke2 Kd6 42. Ke3 Ke5 43.
Bb3 Bf5 44. h4 gxh4 45. gxh4 Bg6 46. Ba4 Kf6 47. Bd7 Ke5 48. Ba4 Kf6 49. f3
c2 50. Kd2 Bh5 51. Bc6 Bxf3 52. Bxf3 1/2-1/2