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Havana, January 28 (RHC)-- Uzbek chess player Nodirbek Abdusattorov defends today his leadership in the Tata Steel tournament against American Wesley So in the penultimate round (12).

On the last day, Abdusattorov took the black pieces and drew with Anish Giri of the Netherlands in 29 moves of an Accepted Queen's Gambit to reach 7.5 points, half a unit ahead of his Friday's opponent in second place.

The big star of the match, Norway's Magnus Carlsen, reigning world champion, drew with So in 58 moves of a Nimzo-Indian defense, Rubinstein Variation.

Carlsen is still in third place with 6.5 scratches, the same accumulation as So, but the Nordic is ahead of him in the tie-breaker system.

American Levon Aronian is in fifth place with six points, with a similar figure for his compatriot Fabiano Caruana, after they both drew in 39 moves of a Tarrasch defense on Friday.

In the only game with a decision in round 11, Iran's Parham Maghsoodloo beat India's Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa after 52 moves of a Sicilian defense, Najdorf variation.

The remaining matches on Friday between China's Ding Liren and Jorden Van Foreest of the Netherlands, India's Arjun Erigaisi and Dommaraju Gukesh, and Germany's Vincent Keymer and Romania's Richard Rapport ended in draws.

Today in round 12 Van Foreest-Giri, Rapport-Ding, Caruana-Keymer, Gukesh-Aronian, Maghsoodloom-Erigaisi and Carlsen-Praggnanandhaa will also face each other