Wesley So draws with Duda; Caruana, Praggnanandhaa up in Superbet Romania

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Wesley So bounces back from a loss in the second round with a draw in the third as he trails the USA's Fabiano Caruana and India's Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania

MANILA, Philippines – After a win and a loss, Wesley So settled for a draw with Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the third round of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour Superbet Chess Classic Romania on Friday, May 9 (Saturday, May 10, Manila time), in Bucharest.

The Bacoor, Cavite-born So landed at 1.5 points with five others, half a point behind joint leaders Fabiano Caruana of the United States and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India in the 10-man, all-Super GM round-robin tournament.

Caruana, the reigning back-to-back titlist, subdued erstwhile leader Alireza Firouzja with the black pieces, while Praggnanandhaa bested Uzbek No. 1 Nodirbek Abdusattorov with white.

Other third-round matches saw world champion Gukesh Dommaraju draw with Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Levon Aronian split the point with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, So’s second-round tormentor.

Aronian and Abdusattorov hogged the cellar with 1.0 point each.

Round 4 action pits Caruana against Abdusattorov, Firouzja against So, Deac against Praggnanandhaa, Vachier-Lagrave against Gukesh, and Duda against Aronian.

The $350,000 (about P19.5 million) tournament ends on May 16, with the champion bagging $100,000. – Rappler.com