Wesley crushes Akopian, regains share of lead

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So outplayed Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian in 48 moves of a Slav Defense to regain a share of the lead after four rounds of the Qatar Masters Open Wednesday night.

So, seeded fourth in the nine-round Swiss system event, turned a drawish opposite-colored bishops endgame into a victory that put him back on top with four others, including top seed world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway with 3.5 points.

Carlsen baffled Polish GM Jan-Krzystof Duda with a sacrifice to hammer out a 42-move win in their super-sharp Sicilian encounter, his third straight after drawing his opening round match.

No. 3 Anish Giri of the Netherlands and No. 6 Li Chao of China fought to a 53-move draw in a Gruenfeld, enabling So, Carlsen and Russian GM Maxim Matlakov, who bested compatriot GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, to force a five-way tie for the lead.

So and Giri were clashing at presstime along with Carlsen versus Li in a pair of interesting duels in the $130,000 event offering $27,000 to the Open champion.