WORLD CHESS CUP UPDATE: WESLEY SO OUTPLAYED KAMSKY, LEADS MATCH
By Salvador Lopez
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 28 Nov 2009
(Special to PhilBoxing.com) At a time when Manny Pacquiao is shaking the boxing world with his spectacular ring exploits, Philippine chess teen sensation Wesley So continues to make waves in the chess scene by scoring yet another victory last night against Gata Kamsky of the U.S. in the first game of their third round watch of the ongoing FIDE World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The competition is an integral part of the World Chess Championship Cycle 2009-2011.
As in his game against Vassily Ivanchuk from the previous round where So upset his higher-rated opponent, the Philippine teen phenom defended with the French defence against Kamsky’s 1.e4. Playing the classical variation of this opening instead of the more complicated Winawer, So quickly equalized and thereafter took over the initiative early in the middle game prompting Kamsky to offer a draw on move 19 which the former politely declined. Not content on defending passively, Kamsky sacrificed a pawn on move 22 and tried to launch an attack on the Black king. Displaying maturity in his play, So calmly repulsed the attack and in the process netted himself another pawn leaving both players with a queen, rook, and knight with So having two pawns more with his four to Kamsky’s two. Kamsky desperately tried to launch yet another attack but at this time, it was only superficial and So did not have any problem staving off the threats. Finally, it was then So’s turn to orchestrate his own counter-attack and as soon as his king stepped out of the firing line with his Kg7 move on the 53rd turn to give way for his heavy artillery, Kamsky immediately resigned. With the win, So enters their second game today (6pm Manila time) with a 1-0 lead and the advantage of having to play the white pieces. This would certainly put a lot of pressure on Kamsky, the winner of the previous edition of this Cup back in 2007 as So needs only a draw to advance to the next round.
Some other notable games of the third round include a battle between two guys with a 4-0 record in Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan against Wang Hao of China where the former prevailed and a mini-upset by David Navara of Czechoslovakia over former Ukrainian Sergei Karjakin who now plays for Russia after recently obtaining his citizenship in that country.
With still a number of very strong players remaining in the field (Alexei Shirov, Peter Svidler, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, etc.) and several young darkhorses (Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Li Chao, etc.), the tournament is still a long way to go and predicting the potential winner would be a difficult task at this point. The sure thing is that boards will be cleared once again tonite.
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