Filipino GM So finishes 3rd at World Open Chess

FILIPINO Grandmaster Wesley So settled for third place overall in the 40th Annual World Open Chess Championship held at the Sheraton City Center Hotel in Philadelphia last July 2 to 8.

The Bacoor, Cavite-based So tallied 6.5 points on account of 4 wins and 5 draws in the nine-round tournament in a tie with six other players. So however, took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA.

So failed to bring to home the championship trophy after settling for a draw against Shulman in the final round.

GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in the tie break to win the coveted chess title.

So settled for an opening round draw against FM Michael Bodek then beat Benjamin W Krause of the USA  in the following round. He again split the point with GM Tsegmed Batchuluun of Mongolia in the third and GM Vladimir Romanenko of Belarus in the fourth.

He posted three consecutive wins against GM Alonso Zapata of Colombia, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of India and GM Atanas Ivan Kolev of Belarus before settling for a draw in his last two assignments against Shabalov and GM Shulman.

So’s stint was supported by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) President/ Chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. and Secretary-General Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino Jr.  /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino