So, women’s world champ draw match

MANILA, Philippines - GM Wesley So failed to shake off reigning women’s world champion GM Hou Yifan of China and settled for another draw to remain in fourth after five rounds of the 77th Tata Steel Masters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands Thursday night.

So took Hou’s knight sacrifice in the middle game of a Queen’s Pawn Opening but had to return the favor a few moves later to slow down his rival’s kingside attack. He actually went one pawn down but was slightly up in position in a rook-and-pawn ending.

Hou, however, flashed her brilliance and salvaged the draw against the fancied Filipino ace, who was expected to win after a strong start highlighted by his victory over world No. 5 Levon Aronian of Armenia in the third round.

With three points, So, now with the US Chess Federation, stayed at fourth with GMs Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and young Anish Giri, one point behind Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk, who also halved the point with Chinese GM Ding Liren.

Carlsen bounced back from a shock third round defeat to Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek with two straight wins, including one against Aronian, while Giri, 20, fended off Georgian GM Baadur Jobava’s sacrificial attack to pound out a victory.

Half a point off the pace at 3.5 points are Ding and Wojtaszek, who stunned Caruana for one of the biggest upsets in the Category 20 tournament.

Hou remained tied for second to last with 1.5 points.

So, meanwhile, hopes to finally nail another win against Jobava, who only has half-a-point to show, in the sixth round being played at presstime.