Another draw caps So’s 4th place finish

MANILA, Philippines – Wesley So closed out his quiet but solid campaign with a 33-move draw with English Grandmaster Michael Adams of a Ruy Lopez to finish tied at fourth at the close of the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands Sunday night.

So finished undefeated in 13 games, winning one over Dutch GM Anish Giri in the opening round and drawing 12 straight, for a share of No. 4 with Giri and Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov with seven points apiece.

The effort was way off So's performance last year when he finished tied at No. 2 and half a point behind eventual winner and reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Carlsen toppped the event for the second straight year as he wound up with nine points after closing out with a marathon 99-move draw with Chinese GM Ding Liren of yet another Ruy Lopez duel.

Ding ended at joint second with GM Fabiano Caruana with eight points each.

Caruana, who is expected to make the US team seeing action in this year’s World Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, went all out for a win that would have sent him in a tie with Carlsen at No. 1.

But he lost his way in opening play and fell an exchange down and lost to Russian Evgeny Tomashevsky in 63 moves of a Nimzo-Indian Defense for a share of second.