WESLEY So found women’s world champion Hou Yifan’s defense tough to crack early Friday, settling for a draw in the fifth round of the all-Grandmaster Tata Steel Masters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
They agreed to split the point after 66 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined, giving So 3.0 points and pulling him down to a share of fourth to seventh places in the 14-player field boasting an average Elo rating of 2746.
Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine also settled for a draw with China’s Ding Liren, but kept top spot with 4.0 points.
It was Polish Radoslaw Wojstaszek ho grabbed the limelight, however, following a 47-move (Dutch Defense) conquest of world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of Italy that pushed him to joint second with Ding. Wojstaszek, who also stunned world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the third round, and Ding both have 3.5 points.
Carslen continued his recovery with a 47-move triumph of another Queen’s Gambit Declined over reigning titlist Levon Aronian that put him in the company of So, Caruana and Dutch Anish Giri, who downed Georgian Baadur Jobava after 36 moves of a King’s Indian Defense.
The sixth round was being played Friday night with Carsen and Caruana battling it out.