World No. 2 Wesley So and Ray Robson wound up in a standoff in the seventh round of the 2017 US Chess Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.
The draw cost So dearly that Yaroslav Zherebukh joined him on top of the leaderboard with 4.5 points after a win over four-time champion Fabiano Caruana.
Half-a-point behind them with four points are Hikaru Nakamura and Varushan Akobian while parading 3.5 are Daniel Naroditsky, Alaxander Onischuk, Ray Robson, Samuel Shankland and Caruana.
Gata Kamsky, the 1996 World Fide finalist, is alone with three points while Jeffrey Xiong has 2.5 and Alexander Shabalov is at the bottom with two.
So’s remaining games will be against Nakamura, Xiong, Kamsky and Naroditsky.