RUSSIAN grandmaster Sergey Karjakin played an accurate defensive game against Filipino GM Wesley So to force a draw in 46 moves last Monday in the third round of the 2018 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
So could not find a winning line against Karjakin to settle for his third draw which put him in a four-way tie for third place with 1.5 points.
“Very difficult to get into good fighting position. Very scientific. It went to the endgame, that’s what happened,” said So in an online interview with Chess Base.com.
Playing a Queen’s Gambit Declined, So lost a knight in an exchange of pieces in the 31st move and Karjakin managed to slip his bishop and rook to the bank rank afterwards.
All eyes were on Indian GM Viswanathan Anand with his 41-move triumph over Fabiano Caruana in their Petrov Defense encounter.
Anand pulled even with Anish Giri, who drew with Peter Svidler in 21 moves of a Four Knights Opening.
Caruana challenged Anand with a b4 pawn capture on the 28th. But Anand found counter plays which resulted after the black-playing Caruana’s bad f5 pawn push.
Anand was able to maneuver his queen for an attack. He put his queen and bishop to the kingside back rank.
World champion Magnus Carlsen drew with Wei Yi in 46 moves of a Catalan to move up to second spot with two points.
He shares second with Gawain Jones and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Jones drew with Baskaran Adhiban in 55 moves of a French Defense while Mamedyarov halved his point with Maxim Matlakov in 25 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined.