Wesley So battled hometown bet Anish Giri to a draw to stay at third place after 10 rounds in the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2023 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Wednesday, Jan. 25.
So halved the point with Giri after 34 moves of an English encounter to slightly improve to six points, one full point behind solo leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.
Giri was solo second with 6.5 points.
With two wins and eight draws, the Cavite-born American currently shared the third spot with reigning classical champion Magnus Carlsen after the Norwegian smashed Indian Parham Maghsoodloo in 56 moves of a Queen’s Gambit.
Abdusattorov, meanwhile, tightened his grip on the top spot after agreeing to a draw with world No. 2 Ding Liren of China in 26 moves of a Ruy Lopez game.
His seven points came from four wins and six draws.
Trailing at fourth to fifth places were Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana with 5.5 points, followed by Richard Rapport and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa with similar 5 points.
Liren was at ninth with 4.5 points, while sharing 10th to 12th places with 4 points were Gukesh Dommaraju, Maghsoodloo and Jorden Van Foreest.
Erigaisi Arjun and Vincent Keymer remained at the bottom with 3.5 points.
So, a former World Fischer-Random king and two-time United States titlist, will have his hands full in the 11th round as he was battling Carlsen at press time.
So’s last two foes are Abdusattorov and Praggnanandhaa.