FILIPINO grandmaster Wesley So escaped from an attacking rook with a draw in 30 moves last Sunday in the second round of the 2018 Tata Steel Chess Tournament.
A repetition of moves by a white-playing Maxim Matlakov in their Catalan Defense game allowed So to settle for his second straight draw after two rounds of the chessfest at Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands.
So fell to a six-way tie for third place with Peter Svidler, Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Gawain Jones and Fabiano Caruana.
Russian-born Dutch GM Anish Giri grabbed the solo lead after he won over Kramnik in 35 moves of an English Opening.
Giri grabbed a g7 pawn, and then forced a check with his bishop at endgame.
He has 2 points, half a point in front of Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who all have 1.5 points.
Carlsen won in 36 moves of a 4-Knights Opening over Bashkaran Adhiban while Anand drew with Karjakin in 31 moves of an Uncommon Opening.
Mamedyarov turned back Hou Yifan in 48 moves of a French Defense.
Svidler drew with Wei Yi in 124 moves of a Gruenfeld Defense while Jones split his point with Caruana in 69 moves of a King’s Indian Defense.
In round 3, So is set to meet Karjakin, while Giri will seek to strengthen his position when he takes on Svidler.