So forces ex-Webster teammate to tiebreaker

MANILA, Philippines -- Grandmaster Wesley So split the point anew with former Webster University teammate Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in 35 moves of an English Opening to end up tied at one point apiece in their third round duel and force a two-game tiebreak in the  Chess World Cup 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan Friday.

So just didn't have anything in a quiet line employed by Le against the former's English and took away any potential attack by swapping both their rooks that resulted to the two agreeing to a draw, their second after a 49-move standoff of a Queen's Gambit Declined the day before.

So and Le thus arranged a tiebreaker, which was being played at press time, where the two will play a pair of rapid games with quicker time control of 25 minutes apiece.

Interestingly, the deadlock favor Le more since the Southeast Asian champion had a higher rapid rating of 2770 compared to the So's 2635.

Also, Le still leads So in their head-to-head showdown, 5.5-3.5.

So made it to the third round by sweeping  Iranian Parham Maghsoodloo and Hungarian Csaba Balogh in pair of one-sided two-game triumphs before running into a more formidable Le, who effortlessly forced draws even though his rating of 2702 (World No. 41) pales in comparison against So's 2767.5 (No. 10).

So, who went to Baku reeling from an embarrassing last-place effort in the 10-player Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri two weeks ago, is eyeing to match, if not surpass, his best effort in this biennial event--a fourth round finish six years ago in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

So exited as early as the second round with defeats to Russians Sergey Karjakin, 1.5-2.5, four years ago also in Khanty-Mansiysk, and Evgeny Tomashevsky, .5-1.5, two years back in Tromso, Norway.