76th Tata Steel Tournament Masters: Another draw for GM Wesley So
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 16 Jan 2014
Round 4 standings: Aronian 3.0pts, Harikrishna, Karjakin, So, Giri 2.5pts, Dominguez, Caruana, Nakamura 2.0pts, Van Wely, Rapport 1.5pts, Naiditsch, Gelfand 1pt
Round 5 Friday 17th Jan 2014 12:30pm: Harikrishna-Giri, Caruana-Van Wely, Rapport-Dominguez, Nakamura-Karjakin, Naiditsch-Aronian, So-Gelfand.
Manila, Philippines---Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So (ELO 2719) was held to a draw for the third time at the hands of local bet GM Anish Giri (2737) in the fourth round of the super-tough Category A of the 76th Tata Steel Tournament Masters in Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).
Handling the black pieces, So, the 20-year-old finance business sophomore at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri, the top player of National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) Chairman/President Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr. and Secretary-General Cavite Rep. Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino Jr., agreed to a draw after 57 moves of Queens Pawn Game.
He upped his output to 2.5 points on account of one win and three draws. After the smoke cleared, Giri had three pawns, knight and a white bishop while So had two pawns, knight and a black bishop.
"Slight advantage si Wesley mahirap talaga pag may queen kasi maraming pagkakataon na nauuwi sa tabla at ng bandang huli may pagkakataon pang si Giri pa ang slight advantage pero talagang tabla na ang kinalabasan ng mga sumunod na moves," said National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) Chairman/President Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr. who watched the games live through ChessBomb website.
Also with 2.5 points were Giri, GM Pentala Harikrishna of India (2706) and GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia (2756).
Harikrishna, meantime beat GM Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands (2678) after 29 moves of Catalan Opening and Karjakin outclassed GM Richard Rapport of Hungrary (2691) after 44 moves of French Winawer skirmish.
Top seed GM Levon Aronian of Armenia (2803) defeated GM Hikaru Nakamura of the USA (2789) after 44 moves of King's Indian Classical to grab solo leadership with 3.0 points.
GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy (2782) failed to continue his impressive start after losing to GM Leinier Dominguez of Cuba (2754) in 108 moves of Ruy Lopez Opening and remained at 2.0 points, the same output of Dominguez and Nakamura.
On Thursday (Friday in Manila), So will face GM Boris Gelfand of Israel (2777), who split the point with GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany (2737) after 30 moves of King's Indian Averbakh. -Marlon Bernardino-
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