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.

Wesley So Places Fifth in Aerofloat Open Blitz Chess

Filipino Super Grandmaster Wesley So picked up the cudgels he left as he vaulted and finished to fifth place in the just recently concluded Aerofloat Open Blitz Chess Championships in Moscow, Russia. The tournament served as a qualifying tournament for the World Blitz Championship.

The 17-year old So, who pulled out of the regular event (Group A) due to exhaustion, piled up six wins to wound up tied for fifth place with Russian Grandmaster Nikita Vitiugov with 13 points. The effort of So is remarkable enough since he is just seeded 23^rd in the tournament.

So is one and a half point behind champion GM Shakhiyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan and one point behind GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine.

So also trailed Russians GM Dmtry Andreikin and Evgeny Tomashevsky by just half a point.

So’s wins comes at the expense of Piort Korobkov of Russia, GM Vitaly Kunin of Russia, GM Ruben Felgaer of Argentina, GM Vallejo Pons of Spain, GM Ian Nepomniatchi of Russia and GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

So was held to draws by IM Aleksei Pridorozhni and GMs Ponomariov and Alexander Grischuk.

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 Faces Ivanchuk in the Second Round of World Chess Cup

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia-  Chess prodigy Wesley So unleashed his feisty form a he upended his first round foe with brilliant rapid chess game prowess to secure a berth in the second round of the 2009 World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk Festival of Arts .

The 16-year old  So won all of his three rapid tiebreak matches over Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan to seal an unassailable 4-1 victory to barge into the second round of the six-part biennial tournament.

So carried the cudgels of the three-man RP contingent after GM Darwin Laylo and Rogelio Antonio Jr. bowed to their respective higher rated rivals.

Laylo reeling on its second straight World Cup appearance lost to 21st seeded Czech GM David Navara 1-2, and joined in the sideline his compatriot Antonio as first round losers.

The highest rated player on his age group So, will be facing very formidable foe in Vassily Ivanchuk, the tournament’s sixth seed, clobbered Russian GM Alexei Bezgrodov of Russia in the first round.

Ivanchuk will be the highest rated player So will encounter. The Philippines top ranked woodpusher has a Elo rating of 2650 and is expected to give a good fight .

So already performed well in facing higher rated opponents (players with  elo rating of 2700 and above).

During the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad, so nipped Chinese Ni Hua and drew with Latvian Alexei hirov who is now the main skipper of the Spanish Men’s chess team. Additionally So forced a draw over GM Sergei Karjakin of Russia in Asian Chess Team Championships in Al Ain, UAE last year.

Top seed Israeli Boris Gelfand led the favorites march to the second round by blasting IM Andrei Obodchuck of Russia 1.5-0.5. Also advancing includes second seed GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan, who swept GM Walaa Samat of Egypt and the third-seeded Russian  GM Peter Svidler who crushed IM Jean Herbert of Canada.

Chess Round Up

Vladimir Kramnik clinched the much coveted (Cat.21) Tal Memorial, which ended last week (first week of November 2009),  in Moscow, Russia. The former world champion score three wins, six draws and no loss in the 10-man, All Grandmaster field.
Finishing tied for second and third were undefeated Vasssily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) the defending champion, and the young Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen, both just a half apoint behind Kramnik.
The Norwegian star is capable of dishing out sharp and sacrificial lines, which can be likened to the Mikhail Tal, who is knowned to be a fierce offensive chess player.

Azerbaijan Triumphs in European Championships

Azerbaijan men’s chess team heavily counted on its youthful team to capture the 17th European Team Championships men’s title held in the first week of November, 2009  in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Consisting of Teimour Radjabov (22), Vugar Gasimov (23), Shakriyar Mamedyarov (24), and  Gadir Guseimov (23). The young Azeris extracted an impressive 15 match points out of possible 18, on seven wins, a draw and one loss in the nine-round Swiss System championship. This is one of the strongest chess team events this year. Perennial favorite Russian men’s chess team, notched second place with 14 points, while Ukraine nosed out World Chess Olympiad reigning gold medalist Armenia via tie break to clinch third after both teams were tied at 13 points a piece.
Gashimov and Mamedyarov were declared the topscorers for the champion team, where they carved out a 6.5/2.5 tall. In the distaff side, the formidable Russian women’s  chess team copped the championship after scoring a scintillating 16 match points. Eventhough, tied with Georgia, Russia took the tournament by virtue of a superior tiebreak.