MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So lost his bid for the top placing of the 43rd Biel International Chess Festival Young Grandmasters tournament after yielding to his Dutch opponent during their 8th round match in Biel, Switzerland on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old So surrendered to GM Anish Giri after 44 moves of English Opening.

The loss kept So stuck with 4 points. He is currently tied at 5th place with Giri, Russian GM Evgeny Tomashevsky and Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein.

A win over Giri could have put So back on top of the standings.

Interestingly, Giri also defeated So during the 72nd Corus International Chess Championship in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands this year.

GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, meantime, beat Rodshtein to create a tie for 1st place with overnight solo leader GM Fabio Caruana of Italy with 5 points each.

Vachier-Lagrave won after 54 moves of Neo-Gruenfeld Defense while Caruana settled a draw with Russain GM Dmitry Andreikin after 55 moves of Sicilian Defense.

Andreikin now has 4.5 points, the same output of GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam, who beat Tomashevsky after 45 moves of another English Opening.

GM David Howell of England crushed GM Parimarjan Negi of India after 52 moves of Sicilian Defense for 3 points to climb to the 9th spot. Negi remained at the bottom of the standings with 2 points.

On Wednesday, the teenage Filipino GM will play white against Andreikin in the 9th round. – by Marlon Bernardino

Standings after Round 8:

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2723) - 5.0 points
Fabiano Caruana (ITA, 2697) - 5.0 points
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE, 2617) - 4.5 points
Dmitry Andreikin (RUS, 2650) - 4.5 points
Anish Giri (NED, 2672) - 4.0 points
Wesley So (PHI, 2674) - 4.0 points
Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS, 2708) - 4.0 points
Maxim Rodshtein (ISR, 2609) - 4.0 points
David Howell (ENG, 2616) - 3.0 points
Parimarjan Negi (IND, 2615) - 2.0 points