A dream collision between two of the hottest and fast-rising chess superstars in the planet between last year’s giant killer in World Cup GM Wesley So of the Philippines, and the tournament’s darkhorse Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the crucial eleventh round of the 72nd Corus Chess tournament at the De Moriaan Community Centre here.
So who wielded the upset axe against Vassily Ivanchuk and Gata Kamsky last year in the World Cup will play the white pieces against the impressive hometown bet, Giri.
Giri holds a fragile half-point lead over So and two other players going into the last three rounds left in the relatively tough Category 16, 14 player event.
So is the reigning Group C winner last year.
Standings and results from rounds 1 to 10 below…
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Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands – GM Wesley So posted two straight victories by whipping GM Dimitri Reinderman of the Netherlands in the 7th round in 2010 Corus Chess Open at the De Moriaan Commercial Center. Riding on the crest of his first win in the tournament against third seeded European Champion Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in the sixth round, So posted his first back-to-back victories by subduing Dutch Grandmaster Dimitri Reinderman in the seventh round. So carried the fight out of the booklines and trounced his opponent with two active bishops and passed pawn in the end game. So extracted the full point after 36 moves of Dutch Defense Stonewall Variation. Finally showing his fierce fighting form So is on the verge of capturing his one of opponent’s two rooks with a lethal bishop move to b5. With the win, So hikes his score to 4.5 points to jumped into a tie for the second to fifth places with 4.5 points, a full point behind local hero GM Anish Giri who agreed to a draw with his compatriot GM Erwin l ‘Ami.
GM David Howell of England, GM Ni Hua of China and GM l’ Ami tied so with similar 4.5 pints. Howell pulled of a win over Finnish GM Tomi Nyback, while Ni agreed to halve the point with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsh of Germany. So will have his hands full when he meets Ni Hua in the eighth round, playing the disadvantageous black pieces. While current pace setter in Group B Section Giri will face Howell.
In the elite Group A Section hostilities, GM Hikaru Nakamura of USA provided the biggest and shocking win in the eighth of the tournament by nipping undefeated GM Alexei Shirov of Spain in 41 moves of the Sveshnikov.
Tags: 2010 Corus Chess Open, Alexei Shirov, David Howell of England, Dimitri Reinderman, European Champion, Germany, GM, GM Arkadij Naiditsh, GM Dimitri Reinderman, GM Erwin l 'Ami, GM Ni Hua, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Netherlands, Spain, Tomi Nyback, Wesley So, Wijk aan Zee
Chess | howitzer | 
January 25, 2010 5:16 pm | 
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GM Wesley So of the Philippines is finding it difficult to squeeze a full point against fancied chessers in the Group B section of 72nd Corus Chess Tournament at the Moriaan Community Center in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The Filipino chess aces extracted another draw at the expense of Indian Supergrandmaster Pentala Harikrishna, his fifth in as many games.
Gaining early positional advantage over his touted opponent who is a former world junior champion, one of the pillars in Indian Chess and mainstay of Indian men’s chess team in Olympiads, So could not find the right combinations to escape with a win.
So marshaled his pieces to create complications but Harikrishna was witty enough to stay out of it and squeezed a draw after both engaged in a series of exchanges that dashed any hopes of So in pulling out a win. The two woodpushers eventually agreed to a truce in 44 moves of a Catalan.
Harikrishna the 2004 World Junior Champion in chess, exchanged his bishop for So’s g pawn to clinch the draw. With the fifth straight draw, So who is one of the favorites in the tournament but still hasn’t showed his fierce form yet in the event, dropped to joint eight spot among players entered here with just 2.5 points to boot.
Prodigious Anish Giri of the Netherlands continues to flex his muscle as he beat seasoned chess player GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel in 38 moves of Gruenfeld for 4 points to lead the Category 16 Group B section. David Howell of Great Britain is on solo second place by subduing Chinese GM Ni Hua with 3.5 points.
Last Goodbyes. Founding commissioner who coach the Philippine basketball team that took seventh place in the 15-nation Melbourne Olympic Tournament in 1956. The Philippine beat Thailand 55-44, Japan 76-61, France 65-58 and Chile 75-65, while losing its games to eventual gold medal winner USA 121-53, Uruguay 79-70, Chile 88-69 and Bulgaria 80-70. The USA team was spearheaded by one of the legend in NBA Bill Russell and KC Jones. The Philippines greatest win in this tournament is beating France which wound up fourth and pushing the eventual bronze medal winner Uruguay to the hilt. Prieto’s 1956 cage team is composed of mainman Tony Genato, the basketball legend Caloy Loyzaga, three-time Olympian Ramoncito Campos, Bonnie Carbonell, Pilig Barretto, Eddie Lim, Charlie Badion, Mon Ramulat, Nano Tolentino, Martin Urna, Antonio Villamor, Leonardo Marquicias. Prieto died at the age of 85.
Tags: Angel Nepomuceno, Antonio Villamor, Bonnie Carbonell, Bulgaria, Caloy Loyzaga, Charlie Badion, Chile, Crystal Soberano, Dianna Tanlimco, Doe Blanchard, Eddie Lim, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, France, Guinness Book of Records, Japan, Kay Yow, Leonardo Marquicias, Martin Urna, Melbourne Olympic Tournament in 1956, Mon Ramulat, Nano Tolentino, Nepomuceno, Olympian, Paeng, Paul Hogue, Pilig Barretto, Ramoncito Campos, Thailand, Tony Genato, Uruguay, USA, World Cup in Tehran
Chess, Games | howitzer | January 17, 2010 9:01 pm | Comments (0)
The much-awaited World Team Championships unfurled last January 3 to 14 in one of the world’s chess Mecca, that is, Turkey. Held every once in four years the tournament which began in 1965, gathers the elite chess playing countries n the world. Highlighting continental champions plus the top five nations in the recent Chess Olympiads and a team from the host country, the tournament is truly a showcase of tenacious chess tactical plays and brilliance. The formidable Team Russia took home the much-coveted team gold in the four-board, 10 team competition, whilst, the United States came in second to clinch the silver medal and India a last minute-sub for China checked in third to bag the bronze medal.
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Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands – Super grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines open its bid in the 2010 Corus International Chess Championships at the de Moriaan Community Center Saturday when he faces top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in the first round.
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The Nordic great hope, Magnus Carlsen, a ferocious wood pusher in the world chess circuit officially upended every chess player as he collared the Number 1 ranking in the January 2010 world chess rankings.
His mystifyng FDE rating of 2810 overshadowed that of the reigning world champion and two former world champions. His feat was spectacular since this wasn’t even achieved by chess prodigies like the first non-Soviet world chess champion Bobby Fischer, the enigmatic Brent Larsen or any other chess the world have had produced.
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