Sanchez Copped Chess Crown in Cannes

Filipino Grandmaster Joseph Sanchez reigned supreme in the just recently concluded 25^th Cannes Chess Festival in Cannes, France.

The 15^th seeded Sanchez essayed a masterful win against Italian GM Sabino Brunello after 33 moves of the English Opening to vault into the top position with 7.0 points just a half-point ahead of his nearest pursuers.  The first ever Grandmaster from Cebu extracted the tough win with the disadvantageous black pieces.

Sanchez led all throughout the tournament from start to finish to better his third placed finish two years ago.

Young chess lion IM Xavier Gazquez of Spain collected 6.5 points to capped his performance with joint second to sixth places finish with GMs Michael Roiz (Israel), Christian Bauer (France), Evgeny Romanov (Russia) and Andrey Sumets of Ukraine.

Sanchez totes an Elo rating of 2513 and currently ranked 8^th in the Philippines and 68^th in Asia.

The Sights, Sounds and Highlights of the 2010 Soccer FIFA World Cup

Spain Wins World Cup

The Spanish Team was triumphant in edging out the Netherlands in a thrilling 1-0 victory behind a goal by an unlikely hero Carles Puyol. The Spain team thus barged into the championship winners of the World Cup such as Brazil, Italy, Germany, France, Argentina, Uruguay, and England.
The team relied on the solid game of David Villa and Xavi and the goalkeeping prowess of Isker Casillas in the early stages of the tournament.

Here are the highlights of the 2010 Soccer World Cup
The 2010 edition of the Soccer World Cup saw a lot of resounding upsets and departure of some of the favored teams throughout the tournament. France, Italy and Serbia were booted out as early as the qualifying stages. Portugal and England were eliminated in the second round by Spain and Germany. Argentina and top-seeded Brazil fell ambush to the Netherlands and Germany. Alas, in the semifinals, previous winners of the World Cup were formally wiped out as Uruguay bowed to giant killer the Netherlands and Spain wielding the upset axe against Germany.

The Seer from Oberhausen, which is actually an octopus named Paul, and hmmm not a human so as to speak gained global prominence by predicting accurately the winner between Germany and Spain in the semifinals. The poor octopus was the center of ire of the exasperated and angered German soccer fans and aficionados. The Germans wanted the sea creature be placed in a tank that contains sharks rofl. The octopus went on to predict the wins of Germany on its battle for third against the 1930 and 1950 champions Uruguay and the title conquest of Spain in the World Cup over shocked the Netherlands. The octopus thus raised its success rate to 12 correct predictions against one foiled prediction.

Photo from telegraph.co.uk

The vuvuzuela the horns used in the World Cup by the fans and pundits was a resounding success and millions worth of revenues will inevitably fickle in to the vuvuzuela inventor and maker who happens to be the 55 year old Freddie Maake.

Suggested Readings:

Philippine Azkals Images or Pictures

The Impressive Philippine Azkals

Meet the Equally Tough Philippine Azkals

The Road For Glory of the Philippine National Football Team – The Azkals

The March for Glory of Spain Team in the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup

Spain vs the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final

The 2010 Soccer World Cup :: Group of Death :: Teams and Young Players to Watch

Wesley So Loses to Giri in Biel Chessfest in the Eighth Round

Grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines bowed to old nemesis GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the eighth round of the 43rd Biel Chessfest Young Grandmaster Tournament  category and remained stacked with 4 points. So playing with the black pieces engaged Giri into complications in their English Opening (Pidgin Variation) and even pushed the Dutch number 2 player in time trouble. At the end So was in big trouble as the match was culled to just 5 pawns for both players and a Zugswang favors the white pieces with strong passive pawns on the kingside that.

The loss dashed the hopes of Wesley So of bagging the tournament’s top plum.

Almost the same fate happened to So earlier this year as he bowed to time troubled Giri after making a blunder. So missed a winning line that enabled Giri to wield the upset axe and eventually wrap up the Corus Section B championship and the automatic seeding to next year’s elite Group A.

Vietnamese GM Nguyen Truoc Son meanwhile pulled out a stunning reversal as he repulsed second seed GM Evgeny Tomashevsky  of Russia to enhance his chances of winning the tournament. Nguyen now totes 4.5 points to catch Caruana for the lead on this All-Grandmaster, single round play tournament.

Other chess matches are still played as of presstime.

Standings After the Eighth Round in the 43^rd Biel International Chess Festival

4.0 points So (Philippines), Tomashevsky (Russia), Andreikin (Russia)*, Vachier-Lagrave (France)*, Rodhstein (Israel)*, Giri (Netherlands)

2.0 points Negi (India)*, Howell (England)*

Playing as of presstime

Wesley So Keeps Share of Second Place After Seven Rounds in Biel Chessfest

Updated

Another draw for GM Wesley So of the Philippines this time against GM Nguyen Trouc Son of Vietnam to stay in a share of the second place in the 43^rd Biel Young Grandmaster Tournaent  held in Switzerland. The Filipino chess whiz finds himself in big trouble but as the battle nears the end game Wesley So managed to make a comeback and squeezed the draw. The Qc2 move of so in the 16^th proves to be very weak as Nguyen pounced on it. The Vietnamese controlled the game from then on, but So didn’t waver as he launched counter attacks and parry all the threats provided by Nguyen.

Three other games in the tournament also ended in a draw on this 10-man all-GM tournament – top seed Maxime Vachier of France against second seed Evegeny Tomashevsky, Fabiano Caruana of Italy against Anish Giri of the Netherlands and Paramirjan Negi of India against Dmitry Andreikin of Russia.

GM Maxime Rodhstein of Israel is still battling GM David Howell of England as of presstime.

Caruana still holds a very slim lead and just a half a point ahead of So, Vachier-Lagrave, and Andreikin.

Standings After Seventh Round in the 43^rd Biel International Chess Festival

4.5 points Caruana (Italy)

4.0 points So (Philippines), Tomashevsky (Russia), Andreikin (Russia), Vachier-Lagrave (France), Rodhstein (Israel)

3.5 points Nguyen (Vietnam)

3.0 points Giri (Netherlands)

2.0 points Negi (India), Howell (England)

*Playing as of presstime

Wesley So Scored a Draw Over His Russian Opponent in the Sixth Round of Biel Chess festival

Updated

Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So escaped with a draw against his second seeded opponent Russian GM Evgeny Tomashevsky in just 24 moves of Carokann in the sixth round of the 43^rd Biel Chess Festival held in Switzerland to hike his output to 3.5 points. He tied his opponent,  Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin and Israeli GM Maxim Rodhstein  for the share of the econd place. Andreikin drew his game over Rodhstein.

Italian GM Fabiano Caruana nurses a slim half point lead in the tournament by also drawing his game against Vietnamese GM Nguyen Truoc Son, to raise his total points to 4.0.

Also playing as of presstime are French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagraive and David Howell, and Dutch GM Anish Giri and Indian GM Paramirjan Negi.

Giri who is the reigning Groub Section of the Corus Chess Tournament is running into time trouble but against his opponent.

Standings After Sixth Round in the 43^rd Biel International Chess Festival

4.0 points Caruana (Italy)

3.5 points So (Philippines), Tomashevsky (Russia), Rodhstein (Israel), Andreikin (Russia), Vachier-Lagrave (France)

1.5 points Howell (England), Negi (India)*

So Loses to Caruana in the Fifth Round in Biel Chess Festival

Grandmaster Wesley So’s hold of the lead in the 43^rd Biel Chess Festival was wiped out as Italian GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy inflicted him a resounding defeat on their Carokann encounter in the fifth round match. The Filipino chess lion who now totes 2 wins, two draws and a loss and was stalled at 3.0 points now half a point behind his tormentor. Caruana seized the solo lead with 3.5 points.

Israeli GM Maxim Rodhstein who played very well for his country in the last staging of the Olympiad made up from a loss to So in the fourth round, as he bounced back into contention by outwitting favored Anish Giri of the Netherlands 1-0 to hike his points output to 3.0.

In other fifth round action, GMs Nguyen Truoc Son of Vietnam and Paramirjan Negi of India agreed to a draw, ½ – ½, the same outcome transpired with the game between second-seeded GM Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia and David Howell of England.

The result of the game between top seed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagraive of France and Russian GM Dmitry Andreikin is still not available as they are still playing as of presstime.

So will have its hand full when it battles Tomashevsky in the sixth round.

Standings After Fifth Round of the 43^rd Biel International Chess Festival

3.5 points Caruana (Italy),

3.0 points So (Philippines), Tomashevsky (Russia), Rodhstein (Israel)

2.5 points Andreikin (Russia)*, Truong Son (Vietnam)

2.0  points Vachier-Lagrave (France)*, Giri (Netherlands)

1.5 point Howell (England)

1.0  point Negi (India)

So Finishes Fifth, Nguyen, Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana tied for first in Ninth Round of Biel Chess Festival

Nguyen Truoc Son provided the biggest reversal in the penultimate ninth round of the 43^rd Biel Chess Young Grandmasters Tournament as he demolished fast-rising star Anish Giri of the Netherlands 1-0, to forge a three-way tie with Grandmasters Maxim Vachier-Lagrave of France and Fabiano Caruana of Italy who scored draws on their respective games. The three totes an identical 5.5 points out of the possible 9.0 points.

Vachier-Lagrave handling the disadvantageous black pieces was held to a draw by Indian GM Paramirjan Negi while Caruana extracted a draw from GM David Howell of England.

Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave will dispute in a two game knockout matches to determine the finalist against Nguyen.

In other chess actions in Biel, Switzerland, GM Wesley So of the Philippines who was at on the losing game against GM Dmitry Andreikin of Russia, still managed to eked out a hard fought draw to hike his total points to 4.5 and finished at the middle pack of the 10 All-GM, single round tournament that gathered some of the best young woodpushers from around the round.

Second seed GM Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia was also held to a truce against GM Maxim Rodhstein of Israel.

Standings after nine round in the Young Grandmasters Tournament Section of Biel Chess Festival

Farewell Leo Prieto, Angel Nepomuceno and Among Others