Draw with Chinese slows down Wesley

MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So and GM Ni Hua of China fought to a 17-move draw of a Sicilian, stalling the Filipino GM’s surge in the 72nd Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Center in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands last Sunday.

The black-playing So came into the eighth round match oozing with confidence after scoring back-to-back victories but Ni transposed their Sicilian opening to a Maroczy Bind structure, which offers more positional approach to restrict black’s counterplay.

The draw left both So and Ni in a three-way ties with GM Erwin l’ Ami of the Netherlands with five points as they fell behind solo leader Anish Giri of the Netherlands by 1.5 points heading into the last five rounds of the Category 16, round robin tournament among 14 players.

Giri, the 15-year-old Nepal-born champion, beat GM David Howell of England in 40 moves of a Gruenfeld to raise his output to 6.5 points.

So and Ni had an equal number of pieces – queen, two rooks, two knights, one bishop and seven pawns – when they agreed to halve the point.

The 16-year-old So takes on fifth seed Emil Sutovksy in the ninth round. The Israeli GM also held top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany to a draw in the other match.

So’s remaining opponents are GM Tomi Nyback of Finland, Giri, Howell and lone female participant IM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia.