So out of London chess with 8th straight draw

MANILA, Philippines — GM Wesley So failed to translate a pawn edge into a winning attack, settling for a draw with Sergey Karjakin and bowing out of the title race after eight rounds of the London Chess Classic in London Sunday night.

So won a pawn at endgame but failed to sustain his attack, enabling Karjakin to recover and regain the pawn a few moves later and escape with a draw, dashing the former’s hopes for a strong finish in the nine-round tournament.

It was So’s eighth draw in row, keeping him at joint fourth with three others with four points, 1.5 points behind Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi with one round left in the elite tournament.

Nepomniachtchi pulled off a shock 40-move win over reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of a Queen’s Pawn Game to grab the lead with 5.5 points.

Fabiano Caruana split the point with fellow American Hikaru Nakamura to drop to second with five points while France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew with India’s Vishwanathan Anand of India and slipped to No. 3 with 4.5 points.

Carlsen fell into So’s group that also included Nakamura and 2018 World Cup titlist Levon Aronian of Armenia.

So is priming up for the Candidates Tournament set in March next year in Berlin, Germany where the winner will challenge Carlsen for the world crown.