Dubai Open, CLOSED FOR WESLEY!

Sadly, after wishing well for The Whiz Kid, here's news from The Weekender:

IM Wesley So and his father, William, failed to fly to Dubai yesterday owing to the cancellation of their United Arab Emirates flight.Marz Marcial, FCPL president of UAE, apologized for the incident, which he said was due to a “miscommunication between the sponsor and the travel agent in Dubai.” Wesley was supposed to compete in the Dubai Open, which opens today.Marcial, however, pledged to sponsor Wesley’s trip in July for the Dubai Junior Open.

And another shot in the back for us chess loving Filipinos. Here's a story from Chessbase.
And what's the matter with the article? Something is really wrong because we also have to read about GM Eugene Torre.

One common denominator can be seen from both, Asia's first International Grandmaster! Arrrgh! Now, it's either the chessbase writer was mistaken or or he was mistaken? But the writer wrote: "and thus arguably the first ever Asian grandmaster" (Jamshid Begmatov). Hahahahah! There is NO ARGUMENT here, Eugene Torre is, as awarded by FIDE, is Asia's first GM nothing more, nothing less!

And now, from The Weekender:

Gloom over Pinoy players as Chinese rule the roost
By Ignacio Dee

GLOOM has once again settled on the nation’s chess community in the wake of one of the worst disasters to hit Filipino players ever—in the Philippine International Open Championship and Challenge at the Subic Freeport, which ended last Thursday.

The only silver lining in the rain clouds hovering over Philippine chess has been the emergence of the country’s newest international master, Singapore-based Julio Catalino Sadorra, 20. He clinched the title by beating his compatriot, veteran IM Barlo Nadera, in the penultimate eighth round.

In a sense, the Subic Open disaster was even worse than that of the first President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Cup last November, when only one Filipino landed among the top 10—Hamed Nouri, 28, then a little-known player from Negros Occidential, who ended up at No. 8.

This time, NM Nouri did not land among the leaders and it was 55-year-old Eugenio Torre, Asia’s first GM, who got the 10th berth.

Even in the absence of its two highest-rated players—Zhang Pengxiang, last year’s GMA Cup champion, and Bu Xiangzhi—China made a clean sweep of the top five places, with No. 3 Chinese GM, Wang Yue, 20, winning the diadem on tiebreak over his two compatriots, GMs Zhang Zhong, 29, and Ni Hua, 24. They had 7.0 points each.

To complete the sweep, teenaged GM Wang Hao and 21-yearold GM Zhao Jun took the fourth and fifth prizes with 6.5 each.

Then followed three six-pointers, but with no Pinoy among them—GMs Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia and Li Shilong of China.

The fourth batch of leaders had 6.0 points each. Nine Filipinos dominated the group, but the top one—No. 9—was a young and untitled Chinese player, Li Chao.Even the special awards went to foreign players: Lalith Babu of India as Top Junior Player, over Boris Diez and Jan Emmanuel Garcia, and Irine Sukandar of Indonesia as the Top Female Player, over Cristy Lamiel Bernales and Kimberly Jane Cunanan.

Torre, the oldest among the local players, was right behind Li on tiebreak, followed by Indonesian GM Utut Adianto, American GM Varushan Akobian, IM Oliver Dimakiling, IMs Sadorra and Wesley So, GM Mark Paragua, Zhao Ziyang, GM Joey Antonio, NM Mirabeau Maga, NM Anthony Makinano, and IM Ronald Bancod, in that order.

The doyen of Filipino players had earlier defeated American GM Akobian, but went down against GM Ni Hua in the next round.

GM Torre had a good chance again against GM Ghaem Maghami in the last round as he has playing White and had opened with his favorite Trompowsky Attack.

But the Iranian GM evaded the Filipino veteran’s vigorous thrusts in mid-game skirmishes and eventually gained the upper hand, which he converted into a full point after 54 moves to send Torre sliding down to No. 10.

Asia’s first grandmaster—he won the title in the 1974 Nice Olympiad—has been the country’s mainstay in foreign competitions like the Olympiad since then, almost without letup. While most of his contemporaries abroad have been replaced by younger GMs, Torre still ranks among the country’s top three players and may be No. 1 now.

While this could be interpreted as a tribute to his longevity as a top-ranked GM, it could also mean there has been not much progress in the Philippines by way of developing fresh talents over the past 33 years.

The very slow progress—the Philippines today has only five grandmasters while England, which had its first GM in the person of the late Tony Miles in 1976, two years later than Torre, now has more than 30—can also be blamed squarely on the lack of a training program.

As Mrs Eleanor So has put it in an email to the Weekender editor: “In my opinion, as what I have observed from my son Wesley…there’s one strategy that I think we missed: Proper training.

“Parang kanya-kanyang training na lang. Parang ‘bahala na’ system. Sariling kayod. Wesley trains on his own. If there’s no one to guide/educate him properly, walang asenso. It would be better if there’s a coach that trains our chess players.

“Hope you could do something to help them. Kawawa lagi ang mga Pinoy. They want to do their best, to bring honor to our country.”

Although the tournament appeared to run smoothly, there were a few hiccups like the failure of the organizers, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, to provide daily bulletins on the games.

The NCFP website was inadequate, with reports posted a day late. Neither did the media give the event, the largest chess tournament held yet in the country this year, the publicity it deserved.

Strangely enough, it was bruited about that Filipino players themselves did not want their games posted because their rivals, potential or otherwise, would get to know their “secret” tactical weapons.

It is as though their play is of international standard, which has been belied by the results of recent international competitions that top-rated Filipino players have entered.

The tournament director was Willie Abalos and the chief arbiter Casto “Toti” Abundo, the NCFP delegate to the World Chess Federation (Fide) where he is the expert in charge of the global rating lists. Both are members of the NCFP board of directors.

The Philippine Open and Challenge was held under the auspices of the NCFP, headed by Rep. Prospero Pichay, in collaboration with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, Globe Telecoms and Free Duty.

Bernardino shines Down Under

WEEKENDER contributor Marlon Bernardino has outshone his Filipino rivals in two Australian events—the Sydney International Open in suburban Parramatta, New South Wales, and the Rooty Hill Active Chess at the RSL Chess Club—during a visit Down Under, highlighted by the Filipino’s upsetting a Russian grandmaster.

In the Sydney Open, Bernardino, a 29-year-old US and Filipino national master, and Fil-Aussie Woman International Master Arianne Caoili scored the highest among the 13 Filipino participants, who included Fide Master Jesse Noel Sales and NM Homer Cunanan, head coach of “multi-titled” San Sebastian College.

Russian GM Georgy Timoshenko (2566), the third seed, captured the diadem on tiebreak over Serbian GM Dejan Antic (2443). Both finished at the helm of a 143-man field with 7.5 points apiece.

GM Antic caught up with Timoshenko in the final round when he beat fourth seed Murray Chandler (2548) of England in the final round while the Russian, who had been leading the field, settled for a draw with Israeli GM Viktor Mikhalevski (2590).

The winners were followed by four players who scored 4.0 points each, namely, GM Mikhalevski, ninth seed IM Zhao-Zong Yuan (2476) of NSW, ninth seed GM Darryl Johansen (2456) of Victoria and 13th seed IM Gary Lane (2421) of NSW.

Bernardino and Caoili, a Filipino-Aussie player, had 5.5 to points each and tied for the 30th 42nd places. According to an ACF newsletter received by the Weekender, NM Bernardino landed the 33rd berth and Caoili the 40th.

Behind them, besides FM Sales and NM Cunanan who had 5.0 each, were Leonardo Tenorio, 4.5, Angelito Camer, Levi Descallar, Mario Aisa and Lorenzo Escalante, 4.0 each; Allen Setiabudi and Julius Ceasar Marquez, 3.0 each; Mario Pieno, 2.0, and Ely Tzcordca, 1.0.

NM Cunanan who was in contention for an IM norm lost to IM Paul Garnett of New Zealand in the eighth round. The only one to earn an IM norm was Australian Gareth Oliver, according to the Australian Chess Federation.

Meanwhile, a report in a Fil-Ausssie blogger’s website said Bernardino also won a double-round-robin invitational event last Sunday at the residence of the Descallar family at Plumpton, also on the outskirts of Sydney.

Bernardino took the plum with a 1.5-.05 win over NM Cunanan in the final round to score 10 points from 11 games.

Among those who took part was FM Sales, the 2005 Australian Open champion.

In the Sydney Open, Bernardino (2136) had the satisfaction of scoring the biggest upset in the Sydney Open when he outwitted Russian GM Sergei Shipov (2592) in the penultimate eighth.

The Shipov-Bernardino game caught the attention of most spectators as they saw the Filipino stop the Russian GM, bringing him down to a tie for the 30th to 42nd places with 5.5 each.

Bernardino’s win against Shipov buoyed his hopes for an IM norm but unfortunately, he lost to FM Igor Bjelobrk (2386) of NSW in the ninth and final round of the Sydney Open.

Benardino had a slight mid-game advantage arising from a Reti Opening but his game crumbled in a time scramble in the last few moves.

As a result, Bjelobrk finished in a tie for seventh to 14th places.

Journalist Ignacio “Iggy” Dee quoted Cathy Rogers, wife of No. 1 Australian player, GM Ian Rogers, as saying that the Russian GM’s loss to the Filipino “was the shock of the event, although Shipov’s run was forgettable.”

Dee recalled that Shipov used to be among the top 25 players in the world, but now spends most of his time annotating games “in his exemplary style” for Russian chess websites.

Actually, as in most games, Shipov and Bernardino made mistakes in mid-game skirmishes.

Black committed the first positional error in reply to an interesting 20.g4!? when he weakened his K-side with 20…h5?, creating further holes in his dark squares.

Incredibly, however, White failed to exploit this and chose to centralize his knight instead of swapping off the dark-squared bishops so as to weaken further Black’s position.

From then on, there was an explosion of tactics that favored Black, forcing White to give up the exchange, rook for the light-squared bishop.

But then, let Spanish-Aussie IM Javier Gil, who competed in the 1986 Asian Juniors in Manila, analyze the game (his italicized notes in quotes).

• Sergei Shipov – Marlon Bernardino
Rd. 8, Sydney Int’l Open, 2007
Semi-Slav (D46)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Bd6 6.Bd3 0–0 7.0–0 Nbd7

“A rather passive variation. 7…dxc4 is the main line of the Meran variation of the Semi-Slav Defense.”

8.e4 dxe4 9.Nxe4 Nxe4 10.Bxe4 Nf6 11.Bc2 b6

“11…h6 is considered the better move.”

12.Bg5

“Without having done anything special, White enjoys a small advantage.”

12…Bb7 13.Qd3 g6 14.Rad1 Be7 15.Qe3 Qc7 16.Qe5 Qd8 17.Rfe1

White’s initial slight advantage is slightly growing.

17…Re8 18.Qe3 Nh5 19.c5 Ng7 20.g4!?

“My first impression was: sure, this take away the f5 square from Black’s knight, but is this weakening of the K-side really necessary?However, I now believe that g4 is actually quite a good move. What happens over the next few moves, however, is very strange indeed. [Bxe7 Qxe7 21.Be4, with a slight advantage].”

20…h5?

“Looks very tempting, but this is actually a serious error.”

21.Ne5?? After 21.Ne5??

"Absolutely unbelievable,” says IM Gil, adding: “Not only does White miss what looks like a forced win, he blunders a bishop instead. [20.Bxe7 Qxe7 21 Qh6!] And the threat of 23.Ng5 leads to a winning attack for White. Unlike other variations where Black hasn’t moved his h-pawn, …f6 is not available now as g6 would be on.”

21...f6?? “21…Bxg5 wins a piece for nothing.”

At this point, IM Gil expresses some misgiving about the accuracy of the score. “There’s probably some transcription error… but this is just too hard to believe. White must have played h4 at some point.”

22.Bxf6 Bxf6± 23.Qh6 [23.Bxg6 “This was interesting also.”
23…Bxe5 24.dxe5 Qh4 25.Bxg6?[25..f3] “With threats such as Rd7, or taking on g6, Black’s h-pawn remains pinned.” 26.Kf1?? 26.Kh1]

“And given White’s threat of Qh7 and Qh8. Black must have forced perpetual with …Qf3 and …Qg4.”

26...Ba6+ 27.Rd3 Bxd3+ 28.Bxd3 Nf5

“Blocking the white bishop. White’s attack vanishes now”

29.Bxf5 exf5 30.e6

[Deep Fritz says 30.Qxc6 does not win a prize, 30...Rac8 31.Qd5+ Kh8 and Black would have a huge advantage.]

30...Qc4+

[Best was 30...Rad8!? and Black can already relax, says Fritz, e.g., 31.Qe3 f4 32.h3 fxe3 33.hxg4 Rxe6 34.Rxe3 Rxe3 35.fxe3 hxg4 36.cxb6 axb6 37.a4 Rf8+, and Black wins]

31.Kg1 Re7!

[Nailing the point, e.g., 32.Qxh5 Qxc5!] 0–1

In Rooty Hill, Bernardino tied with NM Cunanan in scoring the highest score of 5.5 points each in the six-round Swiss Open, but Cunanan won the plum on tiebreak.

Bong Cunanan, the pride of Pampanga, and Bernardino finished the tournament undefeated to lead a field of 18 players.

The two met in the sixth and final round with their lively game ending in a draw.

Two players, Cassettari and Mahmodi, tied for third to fourth with 4.0 points each, followed by five others (Jovi, Tenorio, Kresinger, Galvez and Quesada) with 3.0 each and two, Descallar and Jamshidi, had 2.0 each.

That's it for now! Need to earn a living!