WIJK AAN ZEE, Netherlands — Grandmaster Wesley So settled for a third straight draw, this time against GM Varuzhan Akobian of the US, in the third round of the 72nd Corus chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Centre.

So, seeking a follow-up to his title triumph in Group C of the same tournament last year, vaulted into a slight positional advantage with the white pieces but fell back against the tough-defending Akobian in a sharp middle game battle.

Realizing that he could make nothing from the endgame where he had a queen and four pawns against Akobian’s two rooks and three pawns, the sixth-seeded So (ELO 2656) agreed to halve the point after 33 moves.

The draw followed similar results in the first two rounds where the 16-year-old Filipino champion also split the point with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany and GM Erwin l'Ami of the Netherlands.

The draw kept So, a senior high school from St. Francis of Assisi College, in a seven-man logjam for fourth spot with 1.5 points, a full point behind co-leaders GMs Ni Hua of China and Anish Giri of the Netherlands and half a point behind Naiditsch in the 14-player Group B.