Tuesday, May 27, 2014

What's Next for Wesley So?




Philippines' #1 chess player Wesley So crushed the competition in the recent Annual Capablanca Memorial Tournament last week. Immdediately right after his victory, the 20-year-old CaviteƱo was shrouded with praises from thousands of fellow Filipino chess fans all over the world.


So's remarkable triumph in Havana boosted Philippine chess morale; with a lot of young aspiring players worshipping him, making him their idol...
Which really isn't that bad if we ain't talking about religion :)

Just after that monumental but very quick draw So made with Hungarian GM(Grand-Master) Zoltan Almasi, it was clear who would bring home the filthy bacon.

It is fantastically fortunate that the extremely hard work of Wesley So and his US-based coach, GM Susan Polgar has beard fruit, and that such training had not been in vain:)



Perhaps one of the key factors that lead to Wesley's triumph in Havana was his 8th round win against Cuban Grandmaster Leinier Dominguez. Their imbalanced game seemed OK for both sides(black and white), only until Dominguez first faltered. NOTE: at that time, a lot of Hispanic chess blogs were tackling about So especially when he faced Dominguez and the Spanish GM Vallejo Pons. I guess they were intrigued by So's "DOUBLE DEAD" performance when he beat both Dominguez and Pons! Only GM Lazaro Batista Bruzon(who is not related in any way to Batista the WWE wrestler by the way), was able to hold So flawlessly in two games. 

So the million dollar question right now is...
What's next for So?

Lazaro Batista Bruzon who drew with Wesley So
in both of their games took 2nd place in the
tournament...
By now, So is currently rated #15 in the FIDE live ratings, which means that So might get even more elite tournament invites. While this is obviously good for the Filipino #1, this also means that the challenges will be tougher. One big challenge for So that I could easily  pinpoint is his arch-nemesis, GM Anish Giri:). It is very well-known that So has a recognizably bad performance against the Dutch-Bangladeshi hybrid which I will not dicuss because I've got a feeling that the majority of Filipino chess fans will crucify me for even mentioning the name Giri:)

Anyways...

A lot of Filipino chess players from the homeland are prasing So right now and are making noise that Wesley So should be given 100% support its national government. And hopefully, So will get the support he needs which will fuel his passion even more to climb to the top of the chess elite.


Anish Giri



Friday, May 16, 2014

Two's A Company: Moro and Ivan Lead 15th Karpov Tournament


Alexander "Moro" Morozevich (left)

World-class player Alexander "Moro" Morozevich of Russia is on the run in the 15th  Karpov Tournament. having 3 wins and only 1 draw, Morozevich proved his class by demolishing grandmasters Viktor Bologan in the 1st round, Alex Motylev in the 2nd round, and Emil Sutovsky in the 4th round. Alexei Shirov, who is on a 50% performance in the tournament, has been so far the only player to draw a game against Morozevich. Leading the tournament along with Morozevich is the rising talent Ivan Saric of Croatia.

Morozevich's most brilliant game in the tournament so far, was his round 1 game against the Moldovan Viktor Bologan. Bologan (Black) initiated on what looked like a promising Queen sacrifice as early as on the 13th move only to be "return-sacrificed" by Morozevich. As their game progressed to move 35, both sides seemed to have equal chances until Bologan blew it up with 36...Bxg3?, overlooking the intermediate 37 Rxd5 (which Morozevich actually played). Immediately after this 37 Rxd5!, Morozevich gained favorable exchanges: R+R for Morozevich vs R+B for Bologan, in a very clear endgame. Bologan resigned after 96 moves. 

Meanwhile, Ivan Saric busted Ian Nepomniatchi (which Saric had an overwhelming space advantage in their game), Emil Sutovsky (a R+B vs R+R game with Saric having the supposedly inferior R+B side. But with connected passed pawns in the center, Saric easily won), and Pavel Eljanov (Saric won the game beautifully on what some may call  "an endgame masterpiece". It's worth checking it out on Chessgames.com). Just for the record, Saric won rounds 2-4 while drawing round 1 to Alexei Shirov.

NOTE
ROUND 5 UPDATE!
RUSSIAN GRANDMASTER DMITRY JAKOVENKO CATCHES UP WITH THE TWO LEADERS:

Saric 3.5/5
Morozevich 3.5/5
Jakovenko 3.5/5

© Guy Chessman
2014





Wesley So Grabs Solo Lead in Capa Memorial Tourney

Wesley So


Havana, Cuba--
The number 1 Flipino chess player Wesley So grabs solo lead in the current Capablanca Memorial Tournament ahead of many of chess veterans which included Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Vallejo Pons Francisco (Spain), and Cuba's #1 Leinier Perez, Dominguez. Other notable players included former Hungarian #1 Zoltan Almasi, and Lazaro Bruzon. Although So leads by only half a point, he is the only player in the tournament to achieve a +2 performance. Meanwhile, GM Lazaro Bruzon (Cuba's #2) was content in obtaining a 50% performance with all games having drawn. The biggest disappointment in the tournament however was Vassily Ivanchuk who was a top seed of the event. Ivanchuk, a regular top ten player and World championship candidate, could only grab as much as 2.5 points in 7 rounds. Had he at least drawn his round 3 game against Zoltan Alamasi (a game which Ivanchuk lost.), he would have at least have a 50% performance. Right now, So's closest rival within regards in having the most points, is Leinier Dominguez (4 points compared to So's 4.5 points). Perhaps it should not surprise us if ever Dominguez would try something a little bit "wild" to snatch the lead from So. Or he may just wait if So eventually cracks during the tournament. For that, we will never know for sure.

NOTE:
at this time of writing, 7 rounds have been finished and the 8th round starts at 3AM May 17 (Philippine Time)

"Capablanca Memorial Tournament"

Friday, May 2, 2014

HENRY INFANTE WINS THE 2014 "KADAUGAN SA MACTAN" CHESS TOURNAMENT


Henry Infante of Brgy. Poblacion, Mactan won the annual "Kadaugan sa Mactan" chess tournament in Mactan, Cebu last April 28, 2014. The tournament featured two categories, A blitz event, and a rapid event. Incredibly, Infante won both events! In the Blitz tournament, he posted 13.5 points in 15 games while in the rapid category, he scored 3.5 points out of 4 rounds! What an amazing feat for the newly married chess player! In the blitz event, players who only managed to fall behind 1st place were Ian Villareal (2nd placer), Romeo Resuera (3rd), Mark Simafranca (4th), Ademar Toledo (5th) and Kraig Quinain (6th) respectively. While in the Rapid event, Aldwin Daculan, Romeo Resuera, and Ian Villareal shared 2nd place. In solo 3rd was the very solid Lemuel Montero. 

Mark Simafranca and chess prodigy Ariel Abellana had to share 4th place while Albert Rivera was still able to clinched one of the cash prizes, in the form of 5th place. 

Local veteran, Albert Rivera, not so happy for coming out
5th place in the Rapid Category
A pic of some of the players from the chess tournament...
The tournament would not have been possible without the help of  chess enthusiast
Tony Ycong...