GM WESLEY BARBASA SO TOPS CALGARY CHESS CANADA

by Marlon Bernardino

FILIPINO Grandmaster (GM) Wesley Barbasa So cemented his status as one of the Philippines' elite sportsmen by beating Canadian International Master (IM) Richard Wang in the final round to enroute the coveted title in the just concluded 2013 Calgary International Chess Classic held at the Best Western Village Park Inn in Calgary, Canada.

The 19-year-old So, a freshman student at Webster University in United States finished a total score of eight points on seven wins and two draws. GMs Robin Van Kampen of the Netherlands, Eric Hansen of Canada and Victor Mikhalevski of Israel finished in a three-way tie for second with six points each while GM Eugene Perelshteyn of the United States and IM Edward Porper of Canada ended up sharing the fifth spot with 5.5 points apiece.

In other final round results, Hansen subdued Yam, Kampen crushed Jayakumar, while Piatsetski and Porper agreed to a silent draw. 

Meanwhile, IM Leon Piasetski of Canada and FIDE Master (FM) Michael Langer of US scored five points for seventh to eighth places followed by Wang, FM Adarsh Jayakumar of US (4.5), National Master (NM) Alex Yam of Canada (4.5), FM Dale Haessel of Canada (4.5), untitled Georgi Kostadinov of Canada (4.0), Beehrooz Ebrahim-shirazi of Canada (4.0), NM Robert Gardner of Canada (3.5) and NM Steven Peter of Canada (2.5).

In the blitz competition,  So who hails from Bacoor, Cavite defeated all his rivals to a perfect 9.0 points finish.