FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So settled for another draw, this time with Sergey Karjakin in 22 moves of a Reti in Round 8 of the 2017 Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.
This kept So in the solo lead with 5.5 points after he posted his fifth draw against three wins in eight matches.
But it was the game between Hungarian GM Richard Rapport and world no. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen, which stole the limelight.
Rapport, who has been playing a so-so game, pounced on a series of errors by Carlsen to post a 33-move upset in their Reti opening game.
Because of this, Carlsen dropped out of his share of second position, allowing Pavel Eljanov and Wei Yi to move up behind So with five points.
Ejlanov drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek in 46 moves of a Sicilian Defense, while Wei Yi halved his point with Pental Harikrishna in 27 moves of a Petrov Defense.
Good moves by the white-playing Rapport with his pawn and rook gave him control of the center on the 29th.
When it was over, Rapport was holding off the advance of a passed pawn at e3 with his knight.
Carlsen is tied from fourth to eighth spot and shares 4.5 points with Levi Aronian, Baskaran Adhiban, and Karjakin.
Experts from chessbase.com, who analyzed the game (Daniel King) said the game was quite balanced, with no real edge going to either.
“Yet in the space of five moves, the world no.1 made one error after another, losing a piece at the end,” observed King.
