Nihal Sarin lost twice to Wesley So with black pieces to trail 1-3 in the first set of four rapid games in the title-clash of the $500,000 Chess.com Global Championship Finals on Sunday.
Since the first player to reach 4.5 points from eight games will get the winner’s share of $200,000, Nihal will to have strike early, preferably twice, to stay in the contest on Monday.
So won the first game with white pieces after Nihal faltered decisively on the 23rd move and resigned following 34 moves when staring at checkmate.
In the second game, too, So seized the advantage with black pieces around the 15th move and surprisingly settled for a draw eight moves later, even though he clearly held the whip.
Nihal got his best opportunity to level the score in the third game when So played a dubious move on the 30th turn. However, the Indian youngster missed the precise continuation and soon blundered his way to a 43-move checkmate.
In the final clash of the day, the players chose to draw in 23 moves after equal exchanges.
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