INQUIRER Sports

Group B final standings after 13 rounds:

9.0 points?A. Giri (Netherlands); 8.5?A. Naiditsch (Germany); 8.0?H. Ni (China); 7.5?W. So (RP), E. l? Ami (Netherlands); 6.5?P. Negi (India). P. Harikrishna (India); 6.0?E. Sutovsky (Israel), D. Howell (England); 5.5?A. Muzychuk (Slovenia), L. Nisipeanu (Romania); 5.0?T. Nyback (Finland), D. Reinderman (Netherlands); 4.5?V. Akobian (US)

WIJK AAN ZEE, NETHERLANDS?FILIPINO Grandmaster Wesley So settled for a draw with Slovenian International Master Anna Muzychuk in the final round Sunday to wind up joint fourth in the 72nd Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Centre.

Though he held a three-pawn advantage over lone female bet Muzychuk, the 16-year-old So agreed to split the point after 38 moves of the Nimzo-Indian defense-Capablanca variation as the Ukraine-born player, who is also a WGM, had a solid counterplay with her queen and two connected rooks.

?Wesley was forced to accept the draw because black?s counterplay around the Ka1 would be too powerful,? said Filipino GM Buenaventura ?Bong? Villamayor in his analysis for chessdom.com.

So wound up with 7.5 points on three wins, nine draws and a loss, this one to eventual champion GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands.

The 15-year-old Giri, on the verge of losing to So until the Filipino blundered in the 11th round, finished on top with 9.0 points, followed by German top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch with 8.5 and Chinese GM Ni Hua.

In Group A, world No. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway triumphed with 8.5, half a point ahead of GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and GM Alexei Shirov of Spain.