Corus chess meet: Fourth straight draw for GM So

WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands - Another game, another draw for GM Wesley So of the Philippines. So and fellow chess prodigy GM Parimartjan Negi of India battled to a draw in 36 moves of the Sicilian in a keenly-watched fourth-round encounter in Group B of the 72nd Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Centre here Tuesday.

Negi, who played white, and So have a rook and four pawns each when the game was drawn by perpetual check. Although the match lacked the expected fireworks, the Negi-So match drew a lot of attention in the international chess community since it pitted two of the world's youngest grandmasters. Negi became the world's second youngest player to earn a GM title at age 13 years, four months and 22 days, while So was the seventh youngest at age 14 years, one months and 28 days. Both are also 16 years old. Chessdom.com live game analyst GM Buenaventura "Bong" Villamayor said So held a slight initiative against Negi, who had to battle his way with a fractured pawn structure on the kingside. But the Filipino champion failed to find a way to sustain the pressure against the hard-defending Indian hero with less time on his clock. Negi minimized So's attacking chances when he forced an exchange of the queens on the 15th move. "The queen exchange on 15. Qf3 fractured Negi's kingside, but So's attack was minimized. Now, So had to find ways in maintaining his initiative...not easy with less time," said Villamayor, the only Filipino player invited to join the Chessdom.com team analyzing the games in Corus. The draw was the fourth in as many matches for So, who earned an invitation in this tough, category 16 tournament (average rating ELO 2629) after topping Group C of the same tournament last year. So also drew his matches against top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in the first round, No. 1 seed GM Erwin l'Ami of the Netherlands in the second and eighth seed GM Varuzhan Akobian of the United States in the third. Overall, So dropped into a tie for sixth to 10th places with two points in the 14-player round-robin tournament held annually in this wind-swept seaside resort town. So, however, is only a full point behind leaders GMs Ni Hua of China and Anish Giri of the Netherlands, who drew their fourth-round match. GM Pentala Harikrishna of India, GM David Howell of England and l'Ami scored a full point to move up to a share of third to fifth places with 2.5 points. Harikrishna, seeded third with an ELO of 2672, upset Naiditsch; Howell trounced GM Dimitri Reindermann of the Netherlands; and l'Ami crushed Akobian. The tournament takes a break Wednesday and resumes with the fifth round on Thursday. - GMANews.TV