Wesley hangs on to No. 1
Grandmaster Wesley So still kept his solo lead despite posting his third straight draw yesterday in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Masters 2017 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
The 22-year-old So split the point with reigning world challenger GM Sergey Karjakin of Russia after 22 moves of an English duel to slightly improve to 5.5 points on three victories and five draws.
He also hiked his live ELO rating to 2816 to cement his hold on the No. 3 spot in the world rankings.
The Filipino woodpusher is still half a point ahead of Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov and Chinese GM Yi Wei, who have identical 5 points after also clinching their respective draws against separate opponents.
Eljanov halved the point with Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek even as Yi agreed to a draw with Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna.
Reigning world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway, meanwhile, slipped to joint fourth to seventh with 4 points after absorbing his first loss against Hungarian GM Richard Rapport.
The 14-round tournament takes a break before So next clashes with GM Levon Aronian of Armenia in the ninth round.