Wesley So draws with Hungarian foe, stays at the helm in Sinquefield Cup

Grandmaster Wesley So agreed to a quick draw with Hungarian Richard Rapport to stay at the helm with two others after five rounds of the Grand Chess Tour Sinquefield Cup 2021 in Saint Louis, Missouri Saturday (Sunday in Manila).
So halved the point after 16 moves of a Ruy Lopez Opening to slightly improve to 3.5 points along with fellow American Leiner Dominguez Perez and France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Dominguez Perez split the point with Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in 39 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Accepted, while Vachier-Lagrave caught up on the leaders with a 47-move victory over United States’ Dariusz Swiercz of a Giuoco Piano duel.
American Fabiano Caruana fell out of the lead group after absorbing a shock 35-move defeat to Jeffery Xiong of a King’s Indian Attack to trail at fourth with 3 points.
The 20-year-old Xiong, who once trained under the tutelage of US-based Filipino Julio Catalino Sadorra for two years, improved to 2.5 points to join Mamedyarov and Rapport at fifth to seventh places.
Interestingly, Xiong would play So, who topped the GCT Paris Rapid & Blitz and finished third in the Superbet Cup in Bucharest, Romania a few months back, in the sixth round Monday as the event, which rewards $90,000 to the champion, takes a break Sunday.