So draws anew but keeps lead over world champ

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino-born GM Wesley So of the United States fought Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban to a 39-move draw in a King’s Gambit Accepted to stay on top after six rounds of the  Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Friday night.

Playing black, So equalized early after Adhiban essayed the King’s Gambit and tried to build a positional advantage out of it but the latter held on to a draw. Both players ended up with two pawns, a bishop and a rook each.

Despite the standoff, So kept the solo lead with 4.5 points, half a point ahead of reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Ukrainian GM Pavel Ejlanov with four points apiece.

Carlsen split the point with Armenian GM Levon Aronian in 30 moves of a Slav Defense while Eljanov halved the point with Russian GM Sergey Karjakin, the World Challenger who lost barely to Carlsen in their world title duel late last year, in 35 moves of a Ruy Lopez.

The standoff also put a halt to So’s three-game win streak that came at the expense of Hungarian GM Richard Rapport, Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna.

So was facing off Eljanov in the seventh round at press time.