MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So held top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany to a draw in their tense 111-move encounter in what could be a promising start for the Filipino whiz kid in the Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands Sunday.
The 16-year-old So defended well against Naiditsch, foiling his fancied rival’s series of attacks with precise counter plays in one of the featured matches in the Category 16 Group B competition.
Although Naiditsch, who played white, went quality up in the middle game, the Latvian-born GM failed to translate it to victory as So salvaged the half-point in a rook-and-pawn against bishop- and-pawn ending.
Naiditsch (2689) and So (2656) were two of the eight players who drew their opening-day matches in the 13-round tournament.
GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel and GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands pulled off opening-day victories to share the early lead in the 14-player tournament.
Nisipeanu trounced Tomi Nyback of Finland, Sutovsky outclassed GM Dmitri Reindermann of the Netherlands and Giri toppled GM Pentala Harikrishna of India.
The rest of the matches – GM Ni Hua of China-GM Erwin I’ Ami of Netherlands, GM David Howell of England-Parimarjan Negi of India and Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia-GM Varuzhan Akobian of the United States – also ended in draws.
So takes on I’ Ami in the second round while Akobian goes up against Naiditsch, Negi battles Muzychuk, Harikrishna clashes with Howell, Nisipeanu squares off with Giti, Reindermann plays Nyback and Ni mixes it up with Sutovsky.
Last year, So topped Group C with a 9.5-point total, beating by a full point GM Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden and Giri.
If So wins the Group B tournament, he is expected to be invited to play in Group A next year.