So suffers first Biel setback vs Caruana

Standings after five rounds:

3.5 points—F. Caruana (Italy); 3—W. So (RP), E. Tomashevsky (Russia), D. Andreikin (Russia), M. Rodshtein (Israel); 2.5—M. Vachier-Lagrave (France), N.N. Truong Son (Vietnam); 2—A. Giri (Netherlands); 1.5—D. Howell (England); 1—P. Negi (India)

BIEL, SWITZERLAND—The Philippines’ Wesley So bowed to Italy’s Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round Friday and dropped to a share of second place in the 2010 Biel Young Grandmasters chess championship.

The 16-year-old So suffered his first loss with the black pieces after two earlier wins, resigned after 49 moves of the Semi-Slav and remained with 3.0 points in the nine-round, all-GM tournament.

With the win, Caruana, a two-time Italian champion who holds an Elo rating of 2697 against So’s 2672, grabbed the solo lead with 3.5 points.

Sharing second to fifth places with So at 3.0 points were Evgeny Tomashevsky and Dmitry Andreikin of Russia and Maxime Rodshtein of Israel.

When the end came, So, who lost a knight on the 41st move, was under heavy siege from Caruana’s rook, two bishops and pawn, which could have translated into a mate or loss of So’s lone bishop.

The second-seeded Tomashevsky split the point with GM David Howell of England; Andreikin drew with top seed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Rodshtein won over Anish Giri of the Netherlands.

Vachier-Lagrave and GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam share sixth to seventh places with 2.5 points.