Howell stalls So in Qatar Masters

MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So split the point with English GM David Howell in 31 moves of a Sicilian to drop to joint second behind Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Li Chao of China after three rounds of the Qatar Masters Open Tuesday night.

Playing black, So opted for a tame line of the Sicilian, leading to a series of minor piece exchanges and a draw in a rook-and-pawn ending.

After sharing the lead with eight others the previous round, So slid to a 14-way logjam with 2.5 points along with 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 over Indian GM Chithambaram Aravindh and Russian IM Daniil Yufa.

So was playing Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian, who downed Indian GM Kidambi Sundararajan, in one of the top fourth-round matches at press time.

So kicked off his title campaign in the top-level tournament with victories over Russian Woman GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and American GM Daniel Naroditsky.