Draw keeps So at joint 4th

MANILA, Philippines - GM Wesley So went all out for a win but failed to shake off Armenian GM Arman Pashikian as he settled for a draw in the sixth round of the Aeroflot Open chess tournament at the Hotel Gamma-Delta in Moscow Sunday.

The 17th seeded So sacrificed a knight for two pawns on the 30th to press his attack. But Pashikian wisely forced an exchange of the queens on the 36th to steer the game into a drawish ending with bishops of the same color.

They halved the point after So thus remained in joint fourth with four points, half-a-point behind GM Boris Grachev of Russia and GMs Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam heading into the last three rounds of the tournament.

Other four pointers were defending champion GM Etienne Bacrot of France, GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany, GM Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, GM Giovanni Vescovi of Brazil, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, GM Krishnan Sasikiran of India, GM Artyom Timofeev of Russia, GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine, GM Boris Savcehnko of Russia and Pashikian.

The 16-year-old So takes on Timofeev in the seventh round.

So beat GMs Dmitry Bocharov of Russia, Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia and Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia and drew with GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran. He bowed to Nguyen in the third round.