Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo de Manila University

WORLD CUP: BORIS GELFAND

from Chessbase.com

World Cup final: Gelfand beats Ponomariov to win the Cup
14.12.2009 – After drawing the regular games Ruslan Ponomariov and Boris Gelfand and into the tiebreaks. They won a rapid chess game each and drew two to proceed to the blitz, where again each won a game. Game three and four went to the Israeli, who thus won the World Cup. Gelfand is now part of the eight-player tournament to find a challenger for the World Champion.

The FIDE World Chess Cup took place in Khanty-Mansiysk from November 20th to December 15th 2009. It was a seven-round knockout event with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The final seventh round consisted of four games. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one. The World Chess Cup is an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2009-2011.

Final, tiebreak

The three weeks marathon of the 2009 World Cup finished with 41-year-old Boris Gelfand of Israel beating Ruslan Ponomariov in the tiebreak on Monday. The organiser, FIDE, feel vindicated that the top seed won the event. "Who would dare to call the knock out format a lottery?" the official bulletin says. “Boris is the only participant of the World Cup who could avoid the obvious failures, the only one to play with quality and stability. Bravo, Boris!"

The start of the tiebreak round of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk

Gelfand vs Ponomariov – experience vs fighting spirit

PASKO para sa PARA TOURNEY

SOL CRUZ WINS

PASKO PARA SA PARA TEAM TOURNEY
MERALCO, Pasig City
W: RJ SOL CRUZ, MERALCO
B: NANOBRAIN, BRGY WESLEY



RESULT: 1-0

TWH Chess Results

TWH ROUND 1 to 6

TWH

http://www.tahanangwalanghagdanan.org/news_events_twh.htm

TAHANAN WALANG HAGDANAN CUP

Tahanang Walang Hagdanan Kiddies

ChessHeroes: Tahanang Walang Hagdan Kiddie Chess Tournament

WHITE TO MOVE

WHIZ KID WESLEY SO BOWS OUT

FILIPINO GRANDMASTER Wesley So failed to advance to the next round of the 2009 World Chess Cup as he bowed to Russian Super GM Vladimir Malakhov, 1-4, in the fourth round at the Khanty-Mansiysk Center of Arts in Russia, late Wednesday.

The 16-year-old So (ELO 2640), who twice held Malakhov (ELO 2706) to a draw during their classical time control, yielded to the Russian GM in three straight tie-break matches of rapid chess.

The 59^th-seed So bowed to the 22^nd-seeded Russian in 55 pushes handling the black pieces during their first tie-break match. This was followed by another win by Malakhov after 61 moves in the second match.

The Bacoor, Cavite pride So tried to fight back in the third game but Malakhov took advantage of the momentum to win in 32 moves.

Despite a shutout loss in the tie-break match, So will receive $30,000 (P1.41 million) prize money for reaching Round 4.

With the feat, Malakhov advanced to the fifth round or quarterfinals and will meet compatriot GM Peter Svidler (2754), who brought down last edition’s runner-up GM Alexei Shirov (2719) of Spain, 1.5-0.5, in their classical time control.

On the road to the fourth round or "Sweet 16," So stamped his class by booting out GMs Gadir Guseinov (2625) of Azerbaijan, Vassily Ivanchuk (2735, a perennial competitor in elite chess competitions) of Ukraine, and Gata Kamsky (2695, former World Championship challenger and WCC defending champion) of the United States, in that order.

So’s fourth-round finish is arguably the country’s best showing in World Chess Cup history, surpassing the efforts of his compatriots, GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr. , Darwin Laylo, Mark Paragua and Ronald Dableo who reached the second round of the competition.

GM Eugene Torre, Asia’s first GM, reached the quarterfinal stage under a different elimination format.

"I dream that sooner or later, I will come to the magical point 2700. I don’t know how much time I will need for that," he said.

In other fourth round results, GM Sergey Karjakin (2723) of Ukraine beat GM Nikita Vitiugov (2694) of Russia, 1.5-0.5; GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2719) walloped GM Viktor Laznicka (2637) of Czech Republic, 1-5.0-5; GM Boris Gelfand (2758) of Israel trounced GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2718) of France, 4.5-3.5; GM Dmitry Jakovenko (2736) of Russia defeated compatriot GM Alexander Grischuk (2736), 5-3; GM Vugar Gashimov (2758) of Azerbaijan nipped GM Fabiano Caruana (2652) of Italy, 3.5-1.5; and GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2739) of Ukraine edged GM Etienne Bacrot (2700) of France, 3.5-2.5. -- Marlon Bernardino

WCC R4: Youngsters out, experience rules

ChessBase.com

The three youngest players – the darlings of chess fans – were knocked out in the tiebreaks in Khanty-Mansiysk. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 19, lost to Boris Gelfand, 41; Fabiano Caruana, 17, was eliminated by Vugar Gashimov, 23; and Wesley So, 15, lost all three games to Vladimir Malakhov, 29. Jakovenko knocked out Grischuk, and Ponomariov Bacrot.

http://chessbase.com/news/2009/fide/khanty71.jpg