So, Chinese GM, play to 24-move draw

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So battled Chinese GM Ding Liren to a tense 24-move draw to remain at joint second with French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave after 10 rounds of the 77th Tata Steel Masters in The Hague, Netherlands Wednesday night.

Eyeing no less than a victory, So and Liren ventured into an old but razor-sharp variation of the Queen's Gambit wherein the Cavite-born former Webster University standout sacrificed a rook for three pawns and a vicious-looking kingside attack.

In the end, So found a way to draw via repetition of move.

It turned out that So and Liren followed a line used in the Anatoli Vaisser-Efim Geller game from the Sochi Chigorin Memorial back in 1982 that also ended in a deadlock.

The draw kept So stranded at No. 2 alongside Vachier-Lagrave, who halved the point with Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in 32 moves of their French duel, with 6.5 points apiece, or a full point behind solo leader GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Carlsen, the reigning world champion who is coming off an amazing six-win streak, opted to play it safe and split the point with former co-leader and World Challenger GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in just 18 moves of a Queen's Pawn Game to stay on top with 7.5 points.

The 13-round, Category 20 tournament considered as the Wimbledon of chess took another break yesterday and will resume tonight with So gunning for no less than a victory against Croatian GM Ivan Saric in the 11th round, which returns to Wijk an Zee.

So also moved from No. 8 to No. 7 in the world rankings with a live rating of 2784.8, supplanting Armenian GM Levon Aronian, who fell to No. 8 with 2784.6.

Aronian drew with Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov in 43 moves of a Ruy Lopez.

Breathing down So and Vachier-Lagrave's necks were Ivanchuk, Ding, Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, the World No. 2 who smashed Georgian GM Baadur Jobava in 54 moves of a Queen's Pawn Game, and Dutch GM Anish Giri, a 47-move winner over Saric of a Sicilian Defense, with six points each.

Dutch GM Loek Van Wely bashed reigning women's world champion Chinese GM Hou Yifan's Sicilian with a quick, merciless 24-move triumph.