So, Vietnamese draw in Corus Group B opener

MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So held Southeast Asian rival GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam to a draw in the opener of the Corus Group B Chess Championship at the de Moriaan Community Center in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands Saturday.

So, out to improve on his joint third place finish last year, and Le agreed to split the point in 36 moves of the Catalan.

The Filipino champion had a bishop and four pawns against Le’s knight and four pawns at endgame.

Although the Vietnamese had a slight initiative with the white in the opening where he had more space and active pieces, the 17-year-old So defended well and wisely steered the game into a drawish endgame following an exchange of the major pieces.

“An interesting game where both players showed stable knowledge and the final result reflects the balance on the board,” said IM Alexander Ibatov during his live commentary of the game for chessdom.com.

Ibatov, currently Spain’s top junior player, said Le played a good and solid opening where he had a slight advantage due to more space and a bit more active pieces.

So takes on sixth seed GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia in the second round Sunday.

Sargissian defeated GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India in 38 moves of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted to take the early lead with GMs David Navara of Czech Republic, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine and Luke McShane of England.

Navara shocked top seed Radek Wojtaszek of Poland in 58 moves of the English opening, Efimenko subdued Jon Ludvig Hammer of the Norway in 78 moves of the Benoni and McShane humbled Wouter Spoelman of The Netherlands in 69 moves of the Sicilian.

In other matches, GM Vlad Tkachiev of France drew with GM Laurent Fressinet of France and GM Friso Nijboer of The Netherlands halved the point with GM Li Chao of China.