GM So faces must-win situation in 2013 World Chess Cup

FILIPINO Grandmaster Wesley So’s World Chess Cup campaign will be officially over if he can’t find a way to beat Russian Grandmaster Evgeny Tomashevsky in their second game of the standard play format scheduled late yesterday.

The No.33 seed So (ELO 2708) bowed to the 32nd seed Tomashevsky (ELO 2708) in their first game last Wednesday after 51 moves of Grunfeld Defense, Prins Variation, Grunfeld using the disadvantageous black pieces.

A win by So, one of the most popular young players in the tournament, will force a rapid play off on Friday.

In the first round, So crushed GM Alexander Ipatov of Turkey, 1.5-0.5 to advance to the second round of the biennial event held this year at the Scandic Hotel in Tromso, Norway.

In the 2011 edition in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, So lost to then top seed Ukrainian GM Sergey Karjakin in the blitz tie-break in the second round.

In 2009 also 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 make the quarterfinals. His Cinderella run however, was ended by GM Vladimir Malakhov of Russia who beat him in the rapid tiebreak, 4-1.

The two other Filipino campaigners — 100th seed GM Oliver Barbosa (ELO 2572) and 110th seed GM Mark Paragua (ELO 2545) — both lost their opening matches last Monday in the 128-player, knockout-style event organized by FIDE (World Chess Federation).

Barbosa bowed to 29th seed GM Le Quang Liem (ELO 2712) of Vietnam while Paragua yielded to 28th seed GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia (ELO 2724) in their two-game standard play with similar 0-2 scores. /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino