Wesley draws with reigning world champ

MANILA, Philippines - Wesley So put up a strong challenge and held reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen to a draw in their Nimzo-Indian encounter to remain in joint fourth after two rounds of the 77th Tata Steel Masters in Wijk an Zee, the Netherlands Sunday night.

So pounced on Carlsen’s slight miscues in the middlegame although the 21-year-old Filipino ace failed to gain any positional edge and settled for a truce via repetition of moves on the 34th.

“I had a comfortable game and I didn’t experience any problem,” said So during the post match interview. 

It was the second straight draw for So after he split the point with Polish Radoslaw Wojtaszek in a marathon eight-hour match in Saturday’s opening round of the elite tournament featuring the world’s top players.

Carlsen, who beat Viswanathan Anand of India last year to keep the world crown, also has one point together with defending champion Levon Aronian.

So said Carlsen made some mistakes in the middlegame that allowed the former to equalize and later seize the initiative.

“He (Carlsen) made some slight mistakes with his knight moves. But I didn’t see any concrete way to win so I settled for a draw,” said So.

Carlsen later took notice of So’s strong performance.

“He (So) outplayed me in the middlegame and played a very decent game. I was hoping to put pressure on him but he’s a good player,” said Carlsen.