So halves point, keeps chess lead

MANILA, Philippines – GM Wesley So escaped with a 38-move draw against Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov in their Giuoco Piano game to keep the lead after seven rounds of the Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Saturday night.

So, 23, struggled in the early going but pounced on Eljanov’s endgame blunder to force a draw and hike his total to 5 points, half-a-point ahead of Eljanov, reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway and teenage sensation Wei Yi of China.

Carlsen, whom So drew with in the second round, battled Dutch GM Anishm Giri to a marathon 123-move deadlock of a Queen’s Pawn Game while the 17-year-old Wei dismantled Dutch GM Loek Van Wely’s Sicilian Defense in 52 moves.

So will next face Russian GM Sergey Karjakin, the current World Challenger who downed Armenian GM Levon Aronian in 50 moves of a Giuoco Piano to improve to joint fifth with Giri with four points apiece, in the eighth round.