Draw dashes So’s bid for Aeroflot Open crown

MOSCOW – GM Wesley So of the Philippines practically kissed his title bid goodbye after playing GM Zhou Jianchao of China to a draw in the eighth and penultimate round of the 2010 Aeroflot Open chess tournament at the Izmailovo Gamma-Delta Hotel late Tuesday (Manila time). The game was drawn after 34 moves of the King’s Indian defense.

So, who handled white, chose a solid opening and tried to shake off his lower-rated but more-experienced Chinese opponent by initiating an early attack on black’s kingside. But Jianchao defended accurately with bishop and knight maneuvers and offered a draw after So’s knight push to c3 on the 34th. The draw all but dashed the hopes of the 16-year-old Filipino to catch up with the frontrunners and snatch the title in this prestigious tournament. The high school student of St. Francis College-Cavite raised his score to five points on three wins, four draws and only one loss with still one round remaining. But So dropped a full point behind GMs Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam and half a point behind former champion GM Ian Nepomnichtchi of Russia, GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine and GM Boris Grachev of Russia. So, however, has already matched his output of five points in finishing in a tie for 17th to 36th places last year. The Filipino wound up with three wins, four draws and two losses in 2009 to capture the top junior award, ahead of GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan and GM Sanan Sjugirov of Russia. Top junior trophy National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero Pichay expressed hopes that So will again bring home the top junior trophy. With one round remaining, So stood half a point ahead of GM Sanan Sjugirov of Russia in the race for the top junior plum. “It’s almost in the bag for Wesley. He needs only a draw in his last-round match to clinch the award for the second straight year," said Pichay. So will play black against GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela in the ninth and final round on Wednesday. Iturrizaga, seeded 37th with an ELO of 2616, toppled last year’s co-champion GM Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine in the eighth round to improve to a 4-2-2 win-draw-loss record. The day clearly belonged to Vietnamese players Le and Nguyen. Le trounced erstwhile co-leader GM Boris Savchenko of Russia, while Nguyen shocked GM Evgeniy Najer of Russia to share the lead with six points out of a possible eight. Korobov humbled GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany, while Nepomniachtchi and Grachev battled to a draw to share third to fifth places with 5.5 points. Fifteen players, including So, top seed GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and defending champion Etienne Bacrot of France, shared sixth to 20th places with five points. So’s compatriot, GM Darwin Laylo, withdrew from the tournament after losing six of his seven matches. – GMANews.TV