So plays champ to 34-move draw in 77th Tata Steel Masters

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So held reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen to a trouble-free 34-move draw of a Nimzo-Indian encounter to remain in the thick of things after the second round of the super strong 77th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk an Zee Sunday night.

So, 21, made Carlsen, who defeated Vishwanathan Anand late last year to retain the world title, a little uncomfortable in the middlegame with solid piece plays but couldn't find any concrete edge as he settled for half a point via repetition of moves.

It was the second straight draw for So after he also split the point with Polish Radoslaw Wojtaszek Saturday's opening round that lasted more than eight hours and remained tied for fourth to 11th place along with Carlsen and defending champion Levon Aronian with a point to show.

"I had a comfortable game, didn't experience any problem," said So during post match -interview.

So said Carlsen made some mistakes in the middlegame that allowed the former to equalize and later seize the initiative.

"He (Carlsen) made some slight mistakes with his knight maneuvers. But I didn't see any concrete way to win so I settled for a draw," he said.

Carlsen acknowledged this.

"He (So) outplayed me in the middlegame, he played a very decent game. I was hoping to put pressure on him but he's good player," said Carlsen, who once invited So to be his training partner during his first shot at the world title years back.

As of posting time, So was playing World No. 2 Fabiano Caruano of Italy, whom he has a 1-1 (win-loss) record plus three draws, in the third round.

Caruana, who defeated Chinese Ding Liren the day before, downed Croatian Ivan Saric in a Ruy Lopez game to seize the solo lead with a perfect score of two points, half a point ahead of former World Challenger Vasily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.

Ivanchuk battled Azeri Teimour Radjabov to a 53-move draw using an irregular opening as black while Vachier-Lagrave agreed to a quick 22-move draw with Georgian Baadur Jobava in their Sicilian encounter.