Draw with Chinese keeps So at 2nd

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

Both going for a win, So and Liren ventured into an old but razor-sharp variation of the Queen’s Gambit with the Cavite-born former Webster University standout sacrificing a rook for three pawns to fuel his kingside attack.

But Liren defended with clockwork precision and So salvaged the draw via a repetition of moves.

The duo followed a line used in the Anatoli Vaisser-Efim Geller game from the Sochi Chigorin Memorial way back in 1982 that also ended in a draw.

Vachier-Lagrave, who also split the point with So in the previous round, settled for another draw, this time against Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in 32 moves of a French game to remain tied with the Filipino ace at 6.5 points.

Reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway opted to play it safe against erstwhile co-leader and World Challenger GM Vassily Ivanchuk, staying a full point ahead of So and Vachier-Lagrave at 7.5 points spiked by a stirring six-game run from Round 4.

Carlsen and Ivanchuk of Ukraine agreed to halve the point after only 18 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Game.

The 13-round, Category 20 tournament took another break yesterday with So gunning for no less than a victory against Croatian GM Ivan Saric in the 11th round Thursday, which returns to Wijk an Zee.

So also improved from No. 8 to No. 7 in the world rankings with a live rating of 2784.8, moving past 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.

Ivanchuk, Ding, Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, the world No. 2 who beat 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, share fourth at six points.

Dutch GM Loek Van Wely whipped reigning women’s world champion Chinese GM Hou Yifan’s Sicilian with a quick 24-move triumph.