So shares lead with UAE's Adly in Dubai Open chess

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino grandmaster Wesley So defeated world junior champion GM Ahmed Adly (ELO 2578) of Egypt to take a share of the lead in the fourth round of the 10th Dubai Open chess championship at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club in the United Arab Emirates. The victory was a follow up to So's upset of third seed GM Levan Patsulaia (ELO 2617) of Georgia. So, one of the world's youngest GMs at age 14, also avenged his seventh round defeat in the world junior championship in Yerevan, Armenia, against Adly last October, according to a statement issued on Thursday by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). That loss to Adly ended So's six-game winning streak in the prestigious tournament for players 18 years old and below. This victory over Adly pushed So into a two-way tie for the top spot with No. 33 seed FM Saleh Salem of United Arab Emirates, who toppled No. 13 Weiqi Zhou of China. Both So and Salem have identical perfect scores of four points going into the fifth round of this tough, nine-round tournament also known as Sheikh Rashed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup. So and Salem will face each other in the fifth round. The teen pride of Bacoor, Cavite, also swept his first two matches against No. 81 seed Ali Al-Sulati (ELO 2161) of Brunei in the first round and No. 48 FM Xibin Wu (ELO 2351) of China in the second round. Another Filipino campaigner, GM-candidate Julio Catalino Sadorra, settled for a draw with No. 8 GM Li Chao of China to stay in contention for the $6,000 top prize with three points on two wins and two draws. The Singapore-based Sadorra is tied for ninth to 32nd places. Sadorra also hurdled his first two matches against No. 94 Khosla Shiven (EL 2086) of India in the first round and No. 63 Omid Noroozi (ELO 2274) of Iran in the second round before drawing against No. 10 GM Tigran Kotanjian (ELO 2570) of Armenia in the third round. In the fifth round, Sadorra will face another big test against sixth seed David Arutinian (ELO 2593) of Georgia. Two Dubai-based Filipino players both lost their fourth-round matches – former University of Santo Tomas standout Robert Arellano to AminNazri of Iran, and and Joebanie Tebada to Hafizulhemi Mas of Malaysia. Arellano and Tabada remained with two points. But FM Antonio Molina bounced back from a third-round setback to beat Taghikhani Amir Ali of Iran to raise his score to two points. Molina lost to Parimarjan Negi of India in the round and Amin Nasri of Iran in the third round. Molina's only other win was against WFM Fayega Bukahsem of UAE in the second round. Also dropping his match was Ernesto Yap, who bowed to FM Sriitnath Narayanan of India. It was Yap's third loss against only one win. - GMANews.TV