Grandmaster Wesley So clung to his solo lead after nine rounds in the Tata Steel Masters 2017 despite snaring his fourth straight draw yesterday in Wijk aan zee, Netherlands.
The Filipino woodpusher needed 38 moves of a Queen’s Gambit game to split the point with GM Levon Aronian of Armenia and slightly improve to 6 points with four rounds left in the tournament.
It was So’s sixth draw overall against two victories, still making him half a point ahead of second-running GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway, GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and GM Yi Wei of China.
The reigning world champion Carlsen rose from an eighth-round loss with a triumph over hometown bet GM Loek Van Wely, while Eljanov and Wei drew with Russian GM Dmitri Andreikin and Indian GM Baskaran Adhiban, respectively.
So also remains at third in the world rankings with a live ELO rating of 2815.
Up next for So is GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland, who is currently tied at 11th place with 4 points following a draw with Russian GM Sergey Karjakin.