The 21-year-old So needed 40 moves to beat the Russian master and earned his first full point in the nine-round tournament. So improved his placing to fifth with 1.5 points while GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria stayed on top with 2.5 points followed by second-placers GMs Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Levon Aronian of Armenia with two points each.
Also in the fifth spot with 1.5 points were GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Hikaru Nakamura of CIS. Magnus defeated Vachier-Lagrave in their third-round meeting while the Aronian-Giri, NakamuraCaruana and Topalov-Anand matches ended in a draw.
The fourth round pairings are So-Aronian, GrisschukTopalov, Caruana-Anand, Vachier-Lagrave-Nakamura and Giri-Carlsen.
The tournament offers a whopping $300,000 total prize fund with the champion getting $75,000. (E. Noguera, MT)