So draws with Chinese foe, stuck at 4th

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So couldn't find a victory against a lowly-ranked Chinese International Master Lin Chen and settled for a marathon 132-move draw of a Slav Defense that kept him stranded in a huge group at fourth spot after the eighth and penultimate round of the 2015 Qatar Masters Open in Doha, Qatar Monday night.

So seized a slight positional edge and the tempo early on but couldn't cash in on it as Lin, whose 2532 rating pales in comparison with the former's 2775, held his ground to force a long standoff in a rook-and-pawn ending.

It was So's fourth straight draw and fifth in the last six for 5.5 points, a full point behind solo leader GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway and half a point off joint second GMs Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Yu Yangyi of China.

The draw to Lin also sent So from No. 9 in the world rankings to No. 10 with a live rating of 2778.

Carlsen, the top seed and the reigning world champion, made short work of No. 7 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan while No. 2 Kramnik and No. 11 Yu trounced GM Nils Grandelius of Sweden.

So guns for a victory in the final round against Yu hoping to finish in the top three.