Wesley takes another draw with Dutch GM

MANILA, Philippines - GM Wesley So opted not to force the issue with the black pieces and settled for a second straight draw, this time against GM Erwin l’Ami of the Netherlands in the second round of the 2010 Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Center in Wijh Aan Zee, Netherlands last Sunday.

Finding no clear lines of a breakthrough, the 16-year-old So agreed to split the point with the lower-rated Dutch grandmaster in an almost identical position that ended in a rook and pawn game after only 23 moves.

l’Ami and So had two rooks and the same number of pawns, which offered little opportunity for both players to explore.

The draw came on the heels of So’s marathon, 111-move draw with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in the first round of the 13-round, Category-16 tournament.

Tied with seven others with one point, So stood a full point behind solo leader GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands and half a point behind Naiditsch and GM Ni Hua of China.

Giri, one of three Dutchmen in the Group B, took the solo lead with a 30-move victory over GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania.

The 15-year-old Dutch champion debuted with an equally impressive win over GM Pentala Harikrishna of India in 55 moves of the Slav.

Ni, seeded fourth with a 2657 rating, defeated GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel, to take second place with 1.5 points.