GM David Howell opened with 1.e4 as he usually does and GM Wesley So responded with the French defense (1? e6.) which served him well during the Chess World Cup. The players engaged in a Tarrasch variation and a tension filled battle in the center of the board ensued.
But after a series of manoeuvres along the open d file, a draw was agreed after 20 moves. The players have one game left tomorrow.
The 19 year old David Wei Liang Howell earned his grandmaster title in 2007. He is the youngest chess Grandmaster in the United Kingdom. He started to play chess at age five. Less than five years after learning the game he made headlines when he broke the world record for the youngest player to have defeated a Grandmaster in an official game, beating British GM John Nunn at blitz chess.
In 2002, Howell had a draw in blitz game against Vladimir Kramnik, becoming the youngest player ever to have scored against a reigning world chess champion in an official game. He played board 3 for the England team during the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad.
The 16 year old So won Corus C last year. He will face female GM Anna Muzychuk in his last game Sunday night (Manila time). So?s place in this tournament will depend on the last two games of leader Anish Giri, who beat So last Friday and those of Ni Hua of China and Erin L?Ami of Holland who were in second entering the 12th round, half a point ahead of So.
