BAPTISM OF FIRE IN INDIA
GRANDMASTER Wesley So, at 14 the world's youngest grandmaster today, will see action, most likely as board one player of the national squad, in the Asian Team Championship that kicks off on January 2, right after New Year's Day in the southern Indian city of Visakhapatnam.
"I hope to do well in this event," said So, currently No. 3 in the RP-Fide rating list with an Elo rating of 2531 in an interview with this writer at the Synchopados Restaurant in Malate in the celebration of Christmas Party hosted by Prospero Pichay.
The Bacoor Boy Wonder, who won his GM spurs in the recent Second Prospero Pichay Jr. Cup International Open held in the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Parañaque City, is going to India with three other GMs—Mark Paragua, Eugenio Torre and Rogelio Antonio, Jr. — and Singapore-based International Master Julio Catalino Sadorra, who already has one GM norm.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines president Butch Pichay, who sponsored the Cup named after him, believes that the five forms the strongest possible squad the country can field at this time.
The event, to be held from January 2 to 11, is being hosted by All India Chess Federation and is being organized by the East Coast Chess Academy and the Andhra Pradesh Chess Federation.
Acording to media reports, the NCFP is also sending the national women's team — Sheerie Joy Lomibao, Beverly Mendoza, Sherily Cua and Catherine Pereña. This is the same squad that shone in the Turin Olympiad last year.
WORLD CHESS NEWS: KAMSKY WINS WORLD CUP
FORMER United States champion Gata Kamsky has captured the 2007 World Cup by battling Alexei Shirov of Latvia and Spain to a draw in the third round, held recently at the Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
Kamsky sacrificed the exchange—a rook for a bishop—to create a clear window of opportunity for a draw via perpetual check against his co-finalist to win their match, 2.5-1.5, from one win and three draws.
He will face former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria next year in a match to determine who is to challenge the winner of the rematch between reigning world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the man he dethroned, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.
"I wish to thank everyone for supporting me," Kamsky who had been the underdog said.
His victory capped a three-year campaign to return to his former strength after a seven-year absence from active competition.
Kamsky left chess in 1997 after losing to then Fide world champion Anatoly Karpov in a world title match.
He then went back to college to study medicine then switched to law and graduated in 1997. Soon after graduation, he returned to chess by entering the US championship.
Kamsky won the US crown in 1992, four years after defecting to the United States from the Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991.
On his way to the top, Kamsky defeated world junior champion Ahmed Adly of Egypt, Boris Avrukh of Israel, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria, Peter Svidler of Russia, former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen, 17, in the seminals, and Shirov, in that order.
Kamsky went through the World Cup without a misstep, except in the third round when he was stretched to a rapid playoff against Svidler, a four-time Russian national champion.
Shirov had reached the finals by beating Sergey Karjakin, 18, the world's youngest person ever to become a grandmaster. Carlsen and Karjakin are two of the world's strongest junior players.
In the final round, Kamsky and Shirov drew their first game. Kamsky won the second game, coasted along to draw the third, and needed only a draw to win the match.
In their fourth game, Kamsky spotted a chance to force a draw via perpetual check early on in the transition from the middle game to the endgame.
Reports from MARLON BERNARDINO
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