Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So crushed GM Alexander Ipatov of Turkey, 1.5-0.5, late Monday to advance to the second round of the 2013 World Chess Cup at the Scandic Hotel in Tromso, Norway.
The 33rd seed So (ELO 2708), one of the most popular young players in the tournament, beat the 96th seed Ipatov (ELO 2583) in the first game of their standard play late Sunday and the 19-year-old Filipino sensation needs only a draw in their second game to eliminate the 20-year-old Ipatov of Lviv, Ukraine, the reigning World Junior champion.
Their second round match lasted 59 moves of Grunfeld Defense, Exchange Variation with So handling the black pieces.
So will next face the winner of the match between No.32 seed GM Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia (ELO 2709) and No. 97 GM Alejandro Ramirez (ELO 2583) of the United States. Tomashevsky and Ramirez battled to a draw in their two-game standard play to force rapid playoff late Tuesday.
GM So has mixed results in the World Chess Cup tournament.
In 2011, he lost in the first round but in 2009 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, So ousted former world championship candidates GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, 1.5-.5 in the second round and American GM Gata Kamsky, 1.5-.5 in the third round to advance to the quarterfinals. His Cinderella run however, was halted by GM Vladimir Malakhov of Russia, 4-1 in rapid tiebreak.
BARBOSA, PARAGUA BOW OUT
Meanwhile, the two other Filipino campaigners — 100th seed GM Oliver Barbosa (ELO 2572) and 110th seed GM Mark Paragua (ELO 2545) bowed out of the 128-player, knockout-style, FIDE-organized event after losing late Monday.
Barbosa bowed to 29th seed GM Le Quang Liem (ELO 2712) of Vietnam while Paragua lost to 28th seed GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia (ELO 2724) in their two-game standard play with similar 0-2 scores.
Meanwhile, top seed GM Levon Aronian (ELO 2813) of Armenia also made it to the second round after blasting Mikhail Markov (ELO 2304) of Kyrgyzstan, 2-0.
Other notable players who marched to the next round are 2nd seed GM Fabiano Caruana (ELO 2796) of Italy who edged IM G. Kash (ELO 2340) of India, 1.5-0.5; 3rd seed GM Valdimir Kramnik who blanked Zone 4.3 Chess Championship no rating FIDE Master Gillian Bwalya of Zambia, 2-0; 4th seed GM Alexander Grischuck (ELO 2780) of Russia who nipped IM Igor Bjelobrk (ELO 2341) of Australia, 2-0, and 5th seed GM Hikaru Nakamura (ELO 2772) of the United States who routed WGM Deysi Cori (ELO 2439) of Peru, 2-0.