Wesley So beats Vishy Anand and wins Leon Masters 2017

Magistral Ciudad de León 2017 decided in blitz final

Wesley So has great respect for Vishy Anand, and has said openly in the past that he has learnt a lot from the five-time World Champion and his games. But on July 9th, So could look back on dramatic days in Leon, Spain, having beaten Vishy Anand with a score of 3.5-2.5 to pick up the title of the 30th Leon Masters 2017.

A jubilant So and more subdued Anand after the final | Photo: Official Facebook page

It was four rapid games of 20 minutes + 10 seconds increment and in case of a tie, two blitz games with 5 miuntes + 3 seconds increment, with a final "Armageddon" to follow, if necessary.

Four draws in rapid was followed by Wesley's win in the blitz. A final draw in the sixth game sealed Vishy's hope. So how did it all happen? Let's get down to the games:

Is Wesley So following Baadur Jobava's advice on protective eyewear? | Photo: Official Facebook page

Rapid Game 1

The first game was an Anti-Berlin, where Vishy with the black pieces played quite well. He was better at some point, but Wesley held fort and drew the game.

Rapid Game 2

In the second game Wesley played the French and very quickly got a positional advantage. He exchanged queens so that all Anand's hopes for an attack were lost. And one by one all the pawns started to fall like ripe mangoes. In order to continue the game Anand had to give up a piece. It seemed as if all was over, but Vishy magically managed to draw the game! It was quite unbelievable!

Anand hunkers down | Photo: Official Facebook page

Rapid Game 3

Wesley played 1.d4 and Anand replied with the Nimzo Indian. Very soon the American GM built up a great position, only to be ruined by a few inaccuracies. Once again Anand managed to come out of it unscathed.

Rapid Game 4

Anand was on the back foot. He was a pawn down and Wesley was pushing. But yet again the Indian showed tremendous defensive skills to hold the game. The rapid portion of the event had ended with a 2-2 tie.

So took the white pieces in the first blitz game | Photo: Official Facebook page

Blitz tiebreak

Anand's error was punished brutally by Wesley as he chalked up a win in just 22 moves! The final move Nd8 was quite pretty.

Anand had one final chance to equalize the score in the match and take the game into the Armageddon phase. But Wesley's Petroff was just too solid. Seeing that there is absolutely no way to win the game, Anand offered a draw which was accepted by Wesley. And thus the youngster became the Leon Masters Champion.

Moments after the final handshake | Photo: Official Facebook page

A squeaker of a final match for So, who was able to shrug off a rare blunder in the semi-final match against Jan Krzysztof Duda, when he left his queen en prise.

Likely to be the most remarkable oversight at this level you will see all year!

My Career Vol. 1

The first DVD with videos from Anand's chess career reflects the very beginning of that career and goes as far as 1999. It starts with his memories of how he first learned chess and shows his first great games (including those from the 1984 WCh for juniors). The high point of his early developmental phase was the winning of the 1987 WCh for juniors. After that, things continue in quick succession: the first victories over Kasparov, WCh candidate in both the FIDE and PCA cycles and the high point of the WCh match against Kasparov in 1995.
Running time: 3:48 hours

Links:

• Official site
• Replay all games with computer analysis