So grabs share of Biel chess lead

BIEL, SWITZERLAND—Filipino sensation Wesley So settled for a draw with defending champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France on Tuesday and kept his share of the lead after two rounds of the 2010 Biel Young Grandmasters chess championship at the Center of Biel.

The 16-year-old So agreed to split the point with Vachier-Lagrave, the 2009 world junior champion, after 64 moves of the King’s Indian Defense and boosted his total to 1.5 points.

When the draw was agreed on after four hours of intense play, So had a rook and one pawn against Vachier-Lagrave’s bishop and three pawns.

Tied with So in the 10-player field were second seed GM Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia and GM Maxim Rodshtein of Israel.

Tomashevsky bested GM Parimarjan Negi of India while Rodshtein halved the point with third seed GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

Vachier-Lagrave and four others share fourth to eighth places with one point.