4th draw keeps Wesley at helm

MANILA, Philippines – GM Wesley So held sway on top of the Tata Steel Masters 2017 field as draws marked the resumption of the elite event with all but one of seven matches ending in standoffs in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Tuesday night.

So and Armenian Levon Aronian halved the point in a rook-and-pawn ending of a Queen’s Gambit with the former keeping the solo lead at six points after nine rounds on a fourth straight draw since racking up three straight wins.

Reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway bounced back from a shock eighth round loss to Hungarian GM Richard Rapport with a 59-move win over the Netherlands’ Loek Van Wely, catching Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov and Chinese GM Wei Yi at 5.5 points.

Eljanov drew with Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin in 54 moves while Wei split the point with Indian GM B. Adhiban after a marathon 92-move duel in the 13-round robin tournament among 14 of the world’s Super GMs.

In other matches, Rapport halved the point with GM Anish Giri, also of the Netherlands, Indian GM P. Harikrishna drew with Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Russian GM Sergey Karjakin split the point with GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland.