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Wednesday, December 25, 2024

So settles for 2nd straight draw at Tata Steel chessfest

FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So escaped from an attacking rook with a draw in 30 moves last Sunday in the second round of the 2018 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.

A repetition of moves by a white-playing Maxim Matlakov in their Catalan Defense game allowed So to settle for his second straight draw after two rounds of the chessfest at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.

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So fell to a six-way tie for third place with Peter Svidler, Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Gawain Jones and Fabiano Caruana.

Russian-born Dutch GM Anish Giri grabbed the solo lead after he won over Kramnik in 35 moves of an English Opening.

Giri grabbed a g7 pawn, and then forced a check with his bishop at endgame.

 He has 2 points, half a point in front of Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who all have 1.5 points.

Carlsen won in 36 moves of a 4-Knights Opening over Bashkaran Adhiban while Anand drew with Karjakin in 31 moves of an Uncommon Opening.

Mamedyarov turned back Hou Yifan in 48 moves of a French Defense.

Svidler drew with Wei Yi in 124 moves of a Gruenfeld Defense while Jones split his point with Caruana in 69 moves of a King’s Indian Defense.

In round 3, So is set to meet Karjakin, while Giri will seek to strengthen his position when he takes on Svidler.  

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