GM So draws again, shares lead

FILIPINO Grandmaster Wesley So (Elo 2656) settled for his straight draw this time against German GM Arkadij Naiditsch (2737) in the third round of the super-tough Category A of the 76th Tata Steel Tournament Masters in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands on Monday (Tuesday morning in Manila).
So, the 20-year-old finance business sophomore at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri and the top player of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and Naiditsch agreed to a draw after 35 moves of a Ruy Lopez Berlin with So using the black pieces.
So, the country’s top ranked chess player now has 2.0 points in three rounds on two draws and a win to share the lead with five others.
When both players agreed to a draw, Naiditsch has five pawns and a black bishop while So has four pawns and a white bishop.
The Bacoor, Cavite native, however, remained on top along with top seed GM Levon Aronian of Armenia (2803), GM Pentala Harikrishna of India (2708), GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy (2782), GM Hikaru Nakamura of the USA (2789) and GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands (2737).
Aronian drew with GM Richard Rapport (ELO 2691) of Hungary after 41 moves of Trompowsky Opening; Harikrishna defeated GM Leinier Dominguez of Cuba (2754) after 75 moves of Sicilian Najdorf; Caruana nipped GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia (2756) after 71 moves of Catalan Opening and Nakamura split the point with GM Boris Gelfand of Israel (2777) after 59 moves of English Symmetrical.
GM Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands (2678), meanwhile, halved the point with GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands (2737) after 30 moves of Trompowsky Opening.