Wesley draws first round in 70 moves

MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So failed to cash in on his chances and settled for a marathon 70-move draw with Polish Grandmaster Radoslav Wojtaszek of a super-sharp Sicilian encounter in the first round of the ultra-competitive 77th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk an Zee Saturday night.

So, 21, went for the simplifying pawn exchanges instead of keeping the pressure on the exposed king and convoluted pieces by Wojtaszek, allowing the latter to squeeze out a dangerous formation of connected central passed pawns.

So, No. 10 in the world and seeded fifth here, then threw a mating net that Wojtaszek, No. 15 in the world who served as one of the seconds in Indian GM Vishwanathan Anand’s failed bid in his world title fight with Norweigian Magnus Carlsen months back, calmly parried.

When all things cleared, the game ended in a draw via perpetual check.

So was playing Carlsen in the second round at press time.

With the draw, So ended up tied for fourth spot with Wojtaszek and six others including Carlsen, the reigning world champion, and Armenian GM Levon Aronian, the defending champion.

Playing black, Carlsen employed a rare, fianchetto type defense against Dutch Anish Giri, the youngest participant in this 12-round Category 20 event at 20 years old, and couldn’t find any headway and agreed to a 30-move draw.

Aronian survived Croatian GM Ivan Saric’s upset try to split the point in 32 moves of a Guioco Piano.