So settles for draw but keeps Tata Steel lead

Wesley So. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Fil-Am Wesley So settled for a draw with Indian Baskaran Adhiban Friday night, but kept top spot in the 79th Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee the Netherlands.

With material equal and sans a winning line with black, So agreed to split the point with Adhiban, the lowest rated in the all-Grandmaster field with an Elo 2653, after 39 moves of a King’s Gambit Accepted, Morphy Variation.

The second-seeded So raised his total to 4.5 points after six rounds, maintaining his distance from Norweigian world champion and top seed Magnus Carlsen and Ukrainian Pavel Elijanov, both with 4.0 points.

Carlsen and Elijanov also agreed to draws with Armenian Levon Aronian and Russian Sergei Karjakin, respectively.

Because of the draw with Adhiban, his third against three wins and no losses, So saw his live rating from a personal-best of 2819.4 to 2817.3, but retained his No. 3 world ranking behind Carlsen (2843.4) and fellow US stalwart Fabiano Caruana (2827).

Packed in a logjam at 3.5 points were Aronian, Dutch Anish Giri, who trounced Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Chinese Wei Yi, who downed Hungarian Richard Rapport. —Roy Luarca