So Draws Fifth Game Against Harikrishna in Corus

GM Wesley So of the Philippines is finding it difficult to squeeze a full point against fancied chessers in the Group B section of 72nd Corus Chess Tournament at the Moriaan Community Center in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The Filipino chess aces extracted another draw at the expense of Indian Supergrandmaster Pentala Harikrishna, his fifth in as many games.

Gaining early positional advantage over his touted opponent who is a former world junior champion, one of the pillars in Indian Chess and mainstay of Indian men’s chess team in Olympiads, So could not find the right combinations to escape with a win.

So marshaled his pieces to create complications but Harikrishna was witty enough to stay out of it and squeezed a draw after both engaged in a series of exchanges that dashed any hopes of So in pulling out a win. The two woodpushers eventually agreed to a truce in 44 moves of a Catalan.

Harikrishna the 2004 World Junior Champion in chess, exchanged his bishop for So’s g pawn to clinch the draw. With the fifth straight draw, So who is one of the favorites in the tournament but still hasn’t showed his fierce form yet in the event, dropped to joint eight spot among players entered here with just 2.5 points to boot.

Prodigious Anish Giri of the Netherlands continues to flex his muscle as he beat seasoned chess player GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel in 38 moves of Gruenfeld for 4 points to lead the Category 16 Group B section. David Howell of Great Britain is on solo second place by subduing Chinese GM Ni Hua with 3.5 points.