Thursday, April 10, 2008 RP’s whiz kid shocks third seed for share of lead
DUBAI—RP whiz kid and No.16 seed Grandmaster Wesley So (2540) continued his hot streak as the country’s newest top player upset No.3 GM Levan Pantsulaia (2617) of Georgia using the disadvantageous black pieces to gain a share of the lead along seven others after the third round of the $45,000 Dubai Open at the Dubai Chess Club in United Arab Emirates yesterday.
Also with perfect 3.0 points aside from So were GM Abhijeet Gupta of India, GM Yuri Drozdovskij of Ukraine, GM Ahmed Adly of Egypt, GM Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan, GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, FM Saleh Salem of United Arab Emirates and Zhou Weiqi of China.
So, whose local and international campaign is supported by NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. and Filway Marketing Inc., will square off with No.9 GM Adly (2578), the reigning world junior champion in the next round.
Adly defeated No.28 GM RB Ramesh (2472) of India.
Meanwhile, No.29 IM Julio Catalino Sadorra (2455) secured a draw with No.10 GM Tigran Kotanjian (2570) of Armenia to raise his total to 2.5 points and share ninth to 19th place with fourth round opponent No.8 GM Li Chao (2581) of China. Chao also drew with No.25 IM RR Laxman (2488) of India.
Two overseas Filipino workers, former RP kiddie champion NM Robert Arellano and former Sun.Star sports editor Jobannie Tabada also won their third round matches to tally two points each after three games of play. The two share joint 20th to 61st place. Arellano beat C Natarajan of India, while Tabada shocked FM Abdo Somoff of Libya. (PR)
