Sunday, April 13, 2008 So scores 7 points for third in Dubai Blitz Open
GRANDMASTER Wesley So continued to showcase his chess prowess in Dubai after he secured the third spot in Friday’s Dubai Blitz Open 2008 at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
The 14-year-old high school sophomore from Cavite finished with seven points in the nine-round Swiss system tournament after a final-round draw with top-seed and eventual champion GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan.
Guseinov had 7.5 points in a tie with Ukrain’s GM Yuri Drozdovski, who won his final assignment against Armenia’s GM Tigran Kotanjian. Guseinov won the title with a superior tiebreak score.
So had an unbeaten run in a tough field that included 18 grandmasters, 10 international masters, a woman grandmaster and 10 Fide Masters, highlighting his solid performance in five-minute speed chess with a repeat victory over World Junior Champion Ahmed Adly of Egypt and a penultimate-round win over China’s GM Li Chao, the reigning PGMA Cup champion.
So actually finished in a tie with GM Sarhan Guliev of Azerbaijan, but the Filipino emerged third with a superior tiebreak score.
Sixth round
The rest of the top 10 players are Li, FM MA Soozankar (Iran), Omid Noroozi (Iran), Kotanjian, Zou Weiqi (China) and IM RR Laxman (India).
Meanwhile, the 10th Dubai Chess Open resumed yesterday with the sixth round at 10 a.m. and the seventh round at 6 p.m. So has been the solo leader of the nine-round Swiss system tournament after five rounds with a perfect
score of five points, having beaten defending champion Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia in the third round, Adly in the fourth and giant-killing FM Salem AR Saleh of the UAE in the fifth.
So was playing solo second-placer GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in the sixth round at press time. (JCT)
