Pinoy chesser So shocks Ivanchuk in World Cup

GMA News.TV
KHANTY-Mansiysk, Russia - GM Wesley So of the Philippines authored one of the biggest upset wins in the 2009 World Chess Cup when he pulled the rug from under former world championship contender GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the second round at the Khanty-Mansiysk Festival of Arts here.

Buoyed by his convincing 4-1 win over GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan in the first round, So outclassed the sixth-seeded Ivanchuk (ELO 2739) in 39 moves in the first of their two-game match in the 64-player second round.

So, seeded 59th with an ELO of 2640, needs only a draw against Ivanchuk with the advantageous white pieces in their second game to advance to the 32-player third round.

A win by Ivanchuk will send the match into tiebreak stage.

Wesley So

The Bacoor, Cavite-born So, who rose to prominence by becoming the world's seventh youngest player to earn a GM title in December 2007, played almost flawlessly against the highly-rated Ivanchuk despite handling the black side of the board.

The high school student of St. Francis of Assisi College-Bacoor won a pawn with 13. Qxd4+ and then forced the Ukrainian champion to give up a rook and bishop for knight and bishop.

On the 28th move, So wisely steered the game into his advantage by forcing an exchange of the queens and went into the endgame with two rooks, a knight and five pawns against Ivanchuk's rook, knight, bishop and four pawns.

Earlier Monday, So swept all three rapid tiebreak matches against Guseinov to become the only Filipino player to advance to the next round.

Forced into the rapid tiebreak stage after losing the second game to Guseinov, So left nothing to chance and blanked his Azerbaijan rival in the next three matches.

Last Pinoy standing

The two other Filipino campaigners, GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Darwin Laylo, bowed out of contention after the first round.

Antonio, who earned the right to play in the World Cup by virtue of his strong finish in the Asian Individual Chess Championship held in Subic early this year, lost to GM Gata Kamsky, .5-1.5.

Laylo, the reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion, bowed to No. 21 GM David Navara of Czech Republic, 2-4, including two consecutive losses in the rapid tiebreak games.

Top seed GM Boris Gelfand of Israel, meanwhile, was held to a draw by GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan in their opening match on center stage, the same result obtained by second seed GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan against GM Zhou Jianchao of China.

Upsets also claimed the scalps of third seed GM Peter Svidler and fourth seed GM Alexander Morozevich, both of Russia and fifth seed Teimor Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

Svidler lost to Tomi Nyback of Finland, Morozevich fell to Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic and Radjabov succumbed to Konstantin Sakaev of Russia.

No. 8 GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia dumped GM Vladislav Tkachief of France; No. 9 GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia subdued GM Chanda Sandipan of India; and No. 10 GM Wang Yue of China humbled GM Boris Savcehnko of Russia to lead the seeded players in the win column.