Wesley So draws with Levon Aronian, remains at second in German tilt

Wesley So survived the charge of fellow American Levon Aronian and settled with a draw to stay at second after six rounds of the WR Chess Masters in Dusseldorf, Germany Wednesday, Feb. 22.
The 29-year-old So split the point with the Armenia-born Aronian after 35 moves of a Nimzo-Indian Defense to slightly improve to 3.5 points and stay at second with Indian Dommaraju Gukesh.
It was the fifth straight draw for So after smashing Duda in the opening round a week ago.
So hopes for a win against Praggnanandhaa in the seventh round at press time.
Aronian, for his part, still remained at the helm with 4.5 points with three rounds to go.
The rest of the four other games of the round likewise ended up in standoffs including one with Ian Nepmniachtchi, who halved the point with Russian compatriot Andrey Esipenko in 88 moves of another Nimzo-Indian duel.
Both Nepomniachtchi and Esipenko were tied at No. 4 with three points each.
The rest—Germany’s Vincent Keymer, Netherlands’ Anish Giri, Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and India’ Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa—were in a logjam at sixth to 10th places with 2.5 points apiece.
Nepomniachtchi is using this nine-round meet as part of his build up to his World Championship showdown with Chinese Ding Liren from April 7 to May 1 in Astana, Kazakhstan.