AEROFLOT CHESS: WESLEY SO RETAINS TOP JUNIOR TITLE; OVER-ALL 11TH PLACE; POCKETS 2,500 EUROS
By Marlon Bernardino
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 18 Feb 2010
FILIPINO Grandmaster Wesley Barbasa So made a quick draw to successfully defend his Aeroflot Junior title at the end of the Aeroflot Chess Festival 2010 at the Hotel Gamma-Delta in Moscow, Russia late Wednesday night (Manila Time).
The 16-year-old So, the country's highest-rated player with an Elo of 2656, drew his ninth and final-round match against Venezuela’s GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (Elo 2616) in just 10 pushes of the Slav defense Queen’s Gambit Accepted transposition with the black pieces to finish in a tie for 7th to 19th places with 5.5 points on three wins, five draws and one loss in nine outings. After the tie break point was applied, the 2009 Corus C champion So landed at over-all 11th place.
The Bacoor, Cavite kid So, who was voted as the "Chess Player of the Year" by the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) went home worth 2,500 Euros for winning again the top junior award.
So bested for keeping the top junior award are GM Sanan Sjugirov and GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, both tallied with 4.5 points and GM Saleh Salem of UAE with 3 points.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/ chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. lauded So's impressive performance in the just ended Aeroflot Open chess.
“Wesley is a sensation and have made us Filipinos proud again,” said Pichay, in an interview yesterday, who has already produced five GMs in three years in office (NCFP president) that includes Wesley So, Darwin Laylo, Jayson Gonzales, John Paul Gomez and Joseph Sanchez.
NCFP executive director and event manager Wilfredo “Willie” Abalos added “"He (Wesley So) is an inspiration to the Filipinos," said the former University of Manila (UM) mainstay Abalos, who is the 1st Bellagio Executive Chess tourney champion in Manila.
Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem (Elo 2647) toppled Russian GM Ian Nepomniattchi (Elo 2658) after 60 moves of English Opening using the advantageous white pieces to score 7 points and took the title plus the champion’s purse worth 21,000 Euros.
Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov (Elo 2648) defeated another Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Elo 2616) after 36 moves of Gruenfeld defense to settle for solo second place and received the runner-up prize worth 12,000 Euros.
Four players, led by Russian GM Alexander Motylev (Elo 2697) and Chinese GM Zhou Jianchao (Elo 2632), shared third to sixth places with six points. With them were Truongson and Russian GM Boris Grachev (Elo 2653).
Among the notable players who finished with the same score as So are last year’s champion GM Etienne Bacrot and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, GM Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, GM Ian Nepomniattchi, GM Evgeny Bareev, GM Boris Savchenko, GM Evgeniy Najer, GM Artyom Timofeev and GM Alexey Dreev of Russia, GM Bu Xiangzhi of China, GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia and GM Iturrizaga.
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