INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines ? Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So settled for an opening game truce with GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran Tuesday night in the A1 group of the Aeroflot Open 2010 Chess Tournament in Moscow, Russia.

The 16-year-old So, competing in the division for players with FIDE rating higher than 2549, has the disadvantageous black pieces when he forged a fighting draw with Maghami after 25 moves of a Queen's gambit skirmish.

Compatriot GM Darwin Laylo, however, bowed to Azerbaijan GM Rauf Mamedov after 26 moves of a Modern Defense also in the A1 Group.

In Wednesday?s second round, So (Elo 2646) will play with the white pieces against the 27-year-old GM Dmitry Bocharov (Elo 2594) of Russia while Laylo (Elo 2556) battles another Azerbaijan, GM Eltaj Safarli (Elo 2594) in the weeklong event that offers 21,000 euros to the winner. ? Marlon Bernardino, Bandera

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