Corus Group B Chessfest: So opens bid with a draw

WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands — Grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines battled fellow GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam to a short but fighting draw at the start of the 2011 Tata Steel-Corus Group B chess championships at the de Moriaan Community Center here. So, who is making his third straight appearance in this annual prestigious tournament in this seaside resort town, and Le agreed to split the point after 36 moves of the Catalan. When the game was agreed drawn, So had a bishop and four pawns against Le’s knight and four pawns. Although he allowed the Vietnamese to take the slight initiative with white in the opening, the 17-year-old Filipino champion defended well and wisely steered the game into a draw-ish endgame So engaged his rival in exchanges of major pieces that included the queens and rooks. “An interesting game where both players showed stable knowledge and the final result reflects the balance on the board," said International Master Alexander Ibatov during his live commentary of the game for chessdom.com. Ibatov, currently Spain’s top junior player, said Le played a good and solid opening where he had a slight advantage due to more space and slightly more active pieces. But he also had good words for So, crediting the Filipino for making the right continuation in giving up a pawn on the 28th move to remove his weakness on the c5, and regaining it two moves later to force a draw. Up next for So is sixth seed GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia in the second round Sunday. Sargissian defeated GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India in 38 moves of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted to take the early lead with GMs David Navara of Czech Republic, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine and Luke McShane of England. Navara shocked top seed Radek Wojtaszek of Poland in 58 moves of the English opening, Efimenko subdued Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway in 78 moves of the Benoni and McShane humbled Wouter Spoelman of the Netherlands in 69 moves of the Sicilian. In other Group B matches, GM Vlad Tkachiev of France drew with GM Laurent Fressinet of France, and GM Friso Nijboer of the Netherlands halved the point with GM Li Chao of China. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV