Filipino Wesley So Draws First Blood Over David Howell in Biel Chess Festival

The prestigious and equally tough 43^rd Biel Chess Festival held in Switzerland hostilities finally got underway as top guns of the Young Tournament in the annual event showed fearsome form. Fourth-seeded Filipino grandmaster Wesley So (2674) who is the current youngest player in the world’s top 60 lists in the latest FIDE ratings waylaid old nemesis and British hope David Howell (2616) 1-0, even as Israeli top bet Maxim Rodhstein (2609) squeaking past Indian Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi (2615) 1-0, to grab the early lead in the tournament which lured ten of the brightest and talented woodpushers from all over the world.

The top Filipino bet, So, made a stir in the 2009 World Cup by virtue of scoring stunning upset victories over Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk and American Gata Kamsky next takes on the tournament’s top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2723) who drew his round assignment with Italian sensation and third seed Fabiano Caruana (2697), ½ – ½. While erstwhile co-leader Rodhstein (2609) will meet Caruana in the second round.

All the other matches in the first round ended in a truce. Dutch Anish Giri (2672) who is a half-Russian half-Nepalese drew with Russian second-seed Evgeny Tomashevsky (2708) ½ – ½, while another Russian GM participant Dmitry Andreikin (2650) halved the point with Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2617) ½ – ½.

Other pairings in the second round of the tournament includes Tomashevsky (0.5) – Parimarjan Negi (0), Truong Son (0.5) – David Howell (0), Giri (0.5) – Andreikin (0.5).