MANILA, Philippines – Grandmaster Wesley So split the point with English GM David Howell in 31 moves of a Sicilian to slide to a share of second place behind leaders Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Li Chao of China after the third round of the Qatar Masters Open Tuesday night.
Playing black, So essayed a quieter line of the Sicilian, leading to a series of minor piece exchanges that left the two with an equal rook-and-pawn endgame and eventually a draw after the two agreed to call it a day.
The standoff sent So from a nine-way tie at No. 1 the round before to a 14-way logjam at No. 2 with 2.5 points apiece.
The same group included reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who was held to a shock draw by Georgian International Master Nino Batsiashjvili in the first round before stringing together two wins in a row over Indian GM Chithambaram Aravindh and Russian IM Daniil Yufa.
So was playing Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian, who downed Indian GM Kidambi Sundararajan, in the fourth round at press time.
So's two wins came at the expense of Russian Woman GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and American GM Daniel Naroditsky.