Filipino GM Wesley So drew against GM Pentala Harikrishna of India in the fifth round of the Corus B tournament in Holland. So currently has 2.5 points after five rounds.
So played with the white pieces with d4 as his opening move. The game developed into a Catalan. So had a slight advantage in the endgame with a passed pawn on the a-file. Both players has two rooks, bishop of opposite colors and four pawns each after the 21th move.
But Harikrishna defended well and wisely exchanged rooks. The bishop of opposite colors endgame ended in a draw after 44 moves.
The 23 year old Harikrishna (ELO 2672) became a grandmaster in 2001 at 15 years old. He is a former World Under-10 champion (1996) and a former World Junior Champion (2004). The 16 year old So is the youngest Filipino International Master (at 12 y.o.) and Grandmaster ( at 14 y.o.) in history. All of So?s games so far have ended in draws. So won Corus C last year.
