So escapes with draw vs German, holds on to share of lead

MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So blew a pawn advantage and battled his way from a losing position to escape with a draw against German Arkadij Naiditsch to cling to a share of the lead with five others after three rounds of the 76th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands Monday night.

Playing black and employing the Berlin line of the Ruy Lopez, So, who beat Hungarian Richard Rapport and split the point with second pick American Hikaru Nakamura in the first two rounds, emerged a pawn up after their opening skirmish but had to deal with how to defend his dangerously exposed king.

Naiditsch found a way to break through So’s defense with a pseudo knight sacrifice that saw the former gaining a pawn advantage while leaving the latter with four scattered pawns and a slightly weaker position.

But Naiditsch settled for a draw on the 35th move, perhaps foreseeing he could not make any headway in their opposite-colored bishops endgame despite a pawn edge in this annual tournament considered as the strongest tournament, a Category 20 (2743 average rating) So has participated.

At the end of the day, So, 20, kept his spot at the helm with two points alongside top seed and World No. 2 Levon Aronian of Armenia, No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura of the US, No. 3 Fabiano Caruana of Italy, Pentala Harikrishna of India and Dutch teener Anish Giri with two points apiece.

Aronian drew with Rapport in 41 moves of their Irregular Opening; Caruana waylaid a passive Sergey Karjakin of Russia in 71 moves of their Queen’s Pawn Game; Harikrishna dismantled Cuban Leinier Dominguez Perez’s Sicilian Defense in 75 moves; Giri halved the point with countryman Loek Van Wely; and Nakamura came back from the dead and escaped with a 59-move standoff with Israeli emigre Boris Gelfand in their English duel.

This 11-round, 17-day event, known before as Corus at Hoogovens, takes a break before resuming Wednesday night with So facing off with Giri, the youngest participant at 19 years old or nine months younger than the former, in the fourth round.

It will be especially beneficial for So, who arrived in the morning in Saturday’s opening round after a 32-hour flight from the US while still awaiting for his luggage from London as of posting time.