WESLEY So played to draw in 29 moves of a Sicilian Defense game with Shakriyar Mamedyarov on Saturday at the start of the 2018 Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijkaan Zee, Netherlands.
The game turned drawish following a queen exchange in the 22nd move.
So shares second spot with Gawain Jones, Fabiano Caruana, Bashkaran Adhiban and Sergey Karjakin.
On the other hand, GMs Viswanathan Anand, Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik scored opening-day wins over their respective rivals.
The heavily favored Anand, fresh from a title win in the World Rapid Championships, survived a checkmate attempt from Maxim Matlakov to escape with a 53-move beating in their Ruy Lopez Game.
Giri prevailed over Yifan Hou in 63 moves of a Petroff, while Kramnik repulsed Wei Yi in 70 moves of a Neo Gruenfeld.
Anand, who is seeking his sixth crown just like world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway, entered into complications right from the start when he let Matlakov break through on the queen side.
Matlakov managed to weaken white’s king side and threatened a beautiful checkmate.
Anand lost a pawn in an attempt to keep Matlakov from checking him.
Then, Matlakov missed a winning chance when Anand’s queen and rook began dominating the middle, allowing the latter to win his pawn advantage back.