So draws with Carlsen; Caruana seizes lead

Grandmaster Wesley So forged a morale-boosting draw with world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the second round of the 77th Tata Steel Masters Sunday  in Wijk an Zee, the Netherlands.

Despite handling black, the former top Filipino GM who now represents the US, gave Carlsen anxious moments in the middle game before they decided to split the point by repetition after 34 moves of a Nimzo-Indian Defense and stayed in the middle of the pack of the 14-player field with an Elo rating average of 2762.

The 21-year-old So (Elo 2762), who also drew with Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the opening round Saturday, and Carlsen (Elo 2862) were at 1.0 point along with defending champion GM Levon Aronian of Armenia and five other Super GMs.

Italian GM and world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana surged on top with 2.0 points following wins over Chinese GM Ding Liren and Croatian GM Ivan Saric, respectively.

Caruana was half a point ahead of Ukrainian GM Vasily Ivanchuk and French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.

So, who served as Carlsen’s training partner in 2009, and Aronian (Elo 2797) were battling in the third round at presstime. Other key matches pitted Wojtaszek against Carlsen and Anish Giri against Caruana.  Roy Luarca