Wesley So Advances in World Chess Cup But Other PH Bets Fall

by Marlon Bernardino

Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So crushed GM Alexander Ipatov of Turkey, 1.5-0.5, to advance to the second round of the 2013  World Chess Cup at  the  Scandic Hotel in Tromso, Norway.

The 33th seed So (ELO 2708), one of the most popular young players here, beat 96th seed Ipatov (ELO 2583) in the first game of their standard play after 45  moves of  the Petroff Defense late Sunday using white.

 The draw in the second match late Monday was all that the 19-year-old Filipino sensation needed to eliminate the 20-year-old Lviv, Ukraine born Ipatov, the reigning World Junior champion.

The game in the second match was lasted at 59 moves of Grunfeld Defense, Exchange Variation with So handling the black pieces.

So will next meet the  winner of  the  match  between  No.32 seed   GM   Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia (ELO 2709)  and  No. 97 GM Alejandro Ramirez  (ELO 2583)  of    the   United States. Tomashevsky and Ramirez battled to a draw in their two-game standard play to force rapid playoff late Tuesday. 

Zone 3.3 President and 7th district Cavite Rep. Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino Jr., expressed elation over So’s victory.

"Wesley So deserves attention in the Philippines because he is so young and a good inspiration. Chess is one of the only sports that Philippines has the chance." said Tolentino, also the Secretary-General of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and a long-time chess patron of So.

In 2011 Khanty Mansiysk, Russia edition, So was yielded against then top seed Ukrainian GM Sergey Karjakin in the blitz tie-break in the second round.

In 2009 Khanty Mansiysk, Russia edition, So ousted former world championship candidates GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, 1.5-.5 in the second round and American GM Gata Kamsky, 1.5-.5 in the third round to march to the quarterfinals. His Cinderella run however, was ended by  GM Vladimir Malakhov of Russia, 4-1 in rapid tiebreak.

The  two other  Filipino campaigners -- 100th seed GM Oliver Barbosa (ELO 2572) and 110th seed GM Mark Paragua (ELO 2545)  -- were  not as  lucky, however bowed out of the 128-player, knockout-style event organized by FIDE (World Chess Federation) late Monday.

Barbosa bowed to 29th seed GM Le Quang Liem (ELO 2712) of Vietnam and Paragua was yielded to 28th seed GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia (ELO 2724)  in their two-game standard play with a similar 0-2 score.

The country's campaign in the tournament is supported by former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr., 7th district Cavite Rep. Abraham "Bambol" Tolentino Jr., Bayan Muna Party-List Rep.Neri Javier Colmenares and GM Jayson Gonzales of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).

Top  seed GM Levon Aronian (ELO 2813) of Armenia also easily made it to the second round. The boyfriend of Fil-Australian Arianne Caoili blasted Mikhail Markov (ELO 2304) of Kyrgyzstan, 2-0.

Other notable woodpushers also make it to the next round are 2nd seed GM  Fabiano Caruana (ELO 2796) of Italy who edged IM G. Kash (ELO 2340) of India, 1.5-0.5, 3rd seed GM Valdimir Kramnik who blanked Zone 4.3 Chess Championship no rating FIDE Master Gillian Bwalya of Zambia, 2-0, 4th seed GM Alexander Grischuck (ELO 2780) of Russia who nipped  IM Igor  Bjelobrk (ELO 2341) of Australia, 2-0, and 5th seed GM Hikaru Nakamura (ELO 2772) of the United States who dealt WGM Deysi Cori  (ELO 2439) of Peru, 2-0.

Ladies are doing well in the World Cup according to US based Filipino Herky Del Mundo to force rapid playoff late Tuesday.  Former women world champion GM Hou Yifan of China drew two games with GM Alexie Shirov of Latvia, and current world champion GM Anna Ushenina of Ukraine won her second game against GM Peter Svidler of Russia. Svidler beat Ushenina in their first encounter here.