Grandmaster Wesley So battled fellow American and World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana to a draw to keep a share of the lead after four rounds in the Grand Chess Tour Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis, Missouri Friday.
So held his ground with the black pieces against Caruana to split the point after 53 moves of an English Opening to slightly improve to 3 points and tie with Caruana and Leiner Dominguez-Perez also of the United States at the helm.
Dominguez Perez caught up with So and Caruana after destroying French Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s Sicilian Defense in 33 moves.
So hopes to keep his lofty perch in this nine-round tournament that stakes a total cash pot worth $325,000 as he tackles Hungarian Richard Rapport, who is in the middle of the pack with two points, in the fifth round Saturday.
Rapport is coming off a victory over Peter Svidler.
Other matches saw Sam Shankland downing Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Dariusz Swiercz beating Jeffery Xiong.