Draw gives So share of fourth spot

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So drew with Indian Pentala Harikrishna in 31 moves of the Berlin Variation of the Ruy Lopez to seize a share of fourth spot along with two others after the 10th and penultimate round of the 2014 Tata Chess Steel Masters in the Netherlands Saturday night.

A couple of day after downing Dutch Loek Van Wely, So, 20, tried to find a way to get something out of a timid position but ended up agreeing to draw due to repetition of moves to hike his total to 5.5 points, good enough for No. 4 like Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Leinier Dominguez Perez of Cuba.

Top seed and world No. 2 Levon Aronian of Armenia waylaid Dominguez to clinch the title with still a round to go as he has now eight points in 10 games.

Two points behind were Dutch Anish Giri and Russian Sergey Karjakin, who have six points apiece.

So is hoping to get experience and some rating points that should push him from being ranked 28th in the world to at least the top 20 if he could at least beat or draw with Caruana.