So clings to lead; Carlsen gains

Wesley So. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Fil-Am Wesley So agreed to another draw Tuesday even as world champion Magnus Carlsen bounced back in strong contention in the ninth round of the 79th Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.

Unable to gain headway with white, So split the point with Levon Aronian in 38 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined, Ragozin variation, but kept top spot in the all-Grandmaster 13-round competition.

So climbed to 6.0 points, towing 5.5 pointers Carlsen, who bested Dutch Loek Van Wely; Ukrainian Pavel Eljanov and Chinese Wei Yi.

Eljanov drew with Russian Sergey Karjakin and so did Wei against Indian Baskaran Adhiban.

Aronian, Adhiban and Karjakin were within striking distance at 5.0 points in the event featuring players with an average rating of 2751.

The matches between Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and Indian Pentala Harikrishna and local star Anish Giri against Hungarian Richard Rapport also ended in draws.

The 10th round is slated Wednesday with the Philippine born So, now representing the United States, pitted against Polish Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Carlsen matched against Harikrishna (4.5 points).

Giri (4.5) is pitted against lowly countryman Van Wely (1.5).

As a result of his fourth straight draw after a three-win run, So’s live rating fell to 2815.9, still good for No. 3 in the world behind Carlsen and absentee Fabiano Caruana, also of the US. —ROY LUARCA