RP's So advances to 2nd rd of World Chess Cup

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - GM Wesley So of the Philippines achieved another milestone when he reached the second round of the 2009 World Chess Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk Festival of Arts here. So, at 15 already one of the world's most-recognizable young players, eliminated GM Gadir Guseino of Azerbaijan, 3-1, and moved forward to the tough, 64-player second round of this six-part competition being held in this Scandinavian resort-like town in Western Siberia. The multi-awarded campaigner from Bacoor, Cavite, who rose to prominence by becoming the world's seventh youngest player to earn a GM title, swept all three rapid tiebreak matches against Guseinov to become the only Filipino player to advance to the next round. The 59th-seeded So, who was forced into the rapid tiebreak stage after losing the second game to Guseinov, left nothing to chance and blanked his Azerbaijan rival in the next three matches. Another Filipino campaigner, GM Darwin Laylo, saw his determined campaign come to an end. Laylo, the reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion, lost to No. 21 GM David Navara of Czech Republic, 1-2, and joined compatriot GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. as one of 64 first-round casualties. The pride of Lipa City, Batangas, who made his second straight appearance in the world's biggest chess competition, split the first two against the higher-rated Navara (ELO 2707) to send the match into the tiebreak stage. But after drawing with Navara in the first two rapid games, Laylo yielded the next two games and finally bowed out of contention. Antonio, the most-experienced member of the three-man Filipino delegation, was the first casualty during the weekend matches. Antonio, who earned the right to play in the World Cup by virtue of his strong showing in the Asian Continental Chess Championship held in Subic early this year, bowed to defending champion and No. 27 seed GM Gata Kamsky of the United States, .5-1.5. Antonio lost the first match and managed only to draw the second game against the Soviet-born American player to kiss his bid goodbye. Favored bets advance Top seed GM Boris Gelfand of Israel, who won over IM Andrei Obodchuk of Russia, 1.5-.5, led the march of the favorites to the second round. Joining Gelfand were second seed GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan, who swept IM Walaa Sarwat of Egypt, 2-0; third seed GM Peter Svidler of Russia, who whipped IM Jean Hebert of Canada, 2-0; No. 4 GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia, who eliminated IM Khaled Abdel Razik of Egypt, 2-0; No. 5 GM Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, who crushed IM Mohamed Ezat of Egypt, 2-0; No. 6 GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, who humbled GM Alexei Bezgrodov of Russia, 2-0; No. 7 GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, who trounced GM Essam El Gundy of Egypt, 1.5-.5; No. 8 GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia, who nipped GM Jha Smiram of India, 1.5-.5; No. 9 GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia, who bested GM Aimen Rizouk of Algeria, 1.5-,5; and No. 10 GM Wang Yue of China, who routed GM Nikolai Kabanov of Russia, 2.-0. GM Varuzhan Akobian of the United States also made it to the next round, beating GM Pavel Tregubov of Russia, 9-7, in marathon, 16-game match in the first round. GMs Li Chao and Yu Yangyi of China provided the two upset wins in the first round. The 95th-seed Li eliminated No. 34 GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia while the No. 113 seed Yu shocked No. 16 seed GM Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia. - GMANews.TV