More on Battle of GM's and GM Wesley So

While checking the International Chess Results database, I found that there isn't a result for the Wesley So - Darwin Laylo game posted, however, without hearing about a game taking place, it seems that the GM Antonio Jr - GM Wesley So results have been resinstated. Perhapes because GM Antonio Jr and GM Eugenio Torre drew, I don't know. With the Draw by GM Antonio, Jr it would have left him with 6.5 points to So's 7.5 after round 10. But I found on another page that GM So has 8 points, so he must have drawn vs GM Laylo. With no reason to play the game, I imagine they just let the previous results stand, as I haven't found a replayed game. But found these results posted interesting, note that GM So hadn't finished his game with GM Laylo, but the round 6 controversial game is a draw as before. Strange days indeed...

But it does appear the final results are in, it appears that GM So and Laylo drew, even not posted, I will post final standings as well, even though the final round pairings and results haven't been updated yet.


Round 6 on 2009/03/27 at 1630
Bo. No. Name Result Name No.
1 12 GM ANTONIO Rogelio Jr ½ - ½ GM SO Wesley 9
2 10 IM DABLEO Ronald ½ - ½ GM GONZALES Jayson 8
3 11 GM PARAGUA Mark ½ - ½ IM NOLTE Rolando 7
4 1 IM SADORRA Julio Catalino ½ - ½ GM TORRE Eugenio 6
5 2 IM BITOON Richard ½ - ½ GM GOMEZ John Paul 5
6 3 GM LAYLO Darwin ½ - ½ GM VILLAMAYOR Buenaventura 4


Round 11 on 2009/03/31 at 1400
Bo. No. Name Result Name No.
1 6 GM TORRE Eugenio ½ - ½ GM ANTONIO Rogelio Jr 12
2 7 IM NOLTE Rolando GM GOMEZ John Paul 5
3 8 GM GONZALES Jayson ½ - ½ GM VILLAMAYOR Buenaventura 4
4 9 GM SO Wesley GM LAYLO Darwin 3
5 10 IM DABLEO Ronald ½ - ½ IM BITOON Richard 2
6 11 GM PARAGUA Mark IM SADORRA Julio Catalino 1

Phoenix Petroleum & Dapitan City Battle Of Grandmasters Standings (Final)

Rank after Round 11
Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3

1 GM SO Wesley PHI 2627 8,0 0,0 3,5 38,00
2 GM ANTONIO Rogelio Jr PHI 2519 7,0 0,0 4,0 35,75
3 GM TORRE Eugenio PHI 2560 6,5 0,0 3,0 30,25
4 GM GOMEZ John Paul PHI 2539 5,5 2,0 2,0 24,00
5 IM BITOON Richard PHI 2473 5,5 1,5 3,0 29,50
6 GM LAYLO Darwin PHI 2504 5,5 1,5 2,5 26,75
7 IM SADORRA Julio Catalino PHI 2445 5,5 1,0 2,0 25,75
8 GM PARAGUA Mark PHI 2537 5,0 0,0 2,5 24,75
9 GM GONZALES Jayson PHI 2468 4,0 0,5 1,5 19,00
10 IM NOLTE Rolando PHI 2488 4,0 0,5 1,5 18,75
11 GM VILLAMAYOR Buenaventura PHI 2471 3,5 0,0 1,5 15,25
12 IM DABLEO Ronald PHI 2432 3,0 0,0 2,5 17,25

Tie Break1: The results of the players in the same point group#results against
Tie Break2: Koya Tie-Break
Tie Break3: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break (with real points)

(source: http://chess-results.com/)

Phenom GM Wesley So Leading Battle of GM's Tournament despite controversy

Grandmaster Wesley So, the new Philippine Phenom, is leading the Phoenix Petroleum & Dapitan City Battle Of Grandmasters by 1.5 pts going into the final? round. Going into Round 11 GM So has 7.5 pts with 2 players behind him with 6 pts. All GM So has to do in the final round is get a draw and he will have 8/11 pts, why is this important? One of the players with 6.0 pts, GM Rogelio Antonio Jr and GM Wesley So had a short (22 moves) draw in Round 6, as I understand it, there were NO rules in the tournament banning short draws, nor were the players informed that short draws would be frowned upon. Yet, this short draw was nullified by an organizer and the players ordered to play again, this game has yet to happen.

Now, if GM Antonio Jr wins his last round game, he will have 7 pts. The final round is tomorrow, 31 March, 2009 and GM So draws his last game, he will have 8 points, obviously if he wins his last round game, with 8.5 points, there would be no way GM Antonio Jr could tie or win the tournament, so would this game even be played? The point would be moot really, I mean, they would probably play a well-known drawish game and agree to a draw after 30 moves..to what point? Aggravate the players? But there is always the possibility that GM So would lose his final round game, despite dominating the whole field pretty much, his opponent being GM Darwin Laylo (FIDE 2504) compared to GM So's rating of 2627 (With an expected change of +13.9 on April 1, 2009), GM So should have good chances at winning this game. But if GM Laylo pulls off the upset, and GM Antonio Jr wins his last round game (vs GM Eugenio Torre! FIDE 2560 to Antonio Jr's 2519) which looks to be quite a battle, then by no choice of the players, a replay will be needed, even though GM So would still have a .5 lead, due to the chance of a loss by So. If you think this is all messed up, think how the players feel!

So when would this final game be played (if really necessary), the same day? With a days rest for the players? Did the organizer who negated the round 6 game realize the implications that would come of this? Did he even have the authority to negate a game? I don't know...I would think if short draws were NOT against the rules of the tournament, I would say no. What a mess... At any rate, here's the standings after Round 10 (Today) and the pairings for tomorrow's final? round.

Phoenix Petroleum & Dapitan City Battle Of Grandmasters Standings (Round 10)

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts.
1 GM SO Wesley PHI 2627 7,5
2 GM ANTONIO Rogelio Jr PHI 2519 6,0
3 GM TORRE Eugenio PHI 2560 6,0
4 GM GOMEZ John Paul PHI 2539 5,5
5 GM LAYLO Darwin PHI 2504 5,5
6 IM SADORRA Julio Catalino PHI 2445 5,5
7 IM BITOON Richard PHI 2473 5,0
8 GM PARAGUA Mark PHI 2537 5,0
9 IM NOLTE Rolando PHI 2488 4,0
10 GM GONZALES Jayson PHI 2468 3,5
11 GM VILLAMAYOR Buenaventura PHI 2471 3,0
12 IM DABLEO Ronald PHI 2432 2,5


Round 11 on 2009/03/31 at 1400

Bo. No. Name Result Name No.

1 6 GM TORRE Eugenio - GM ANTONIO Rogelio Jr 12
2 7 IM NOLTE Rolando - GM GOMEZ John Paul 5
3 8 GM GONZALES Jayson - GM VILLAMAYOR Buenaventura 4
4 9 GM SO Wesley - GM LAYLO Darwin 3
5 10 IM DABLEO Ronald - IM BITOON Richard 2
6 11 GM PARAGUA Mark - IM SADORRA Julio Catalino 1

Corus 2009 Final Round (13) Pairings and Results

Here it is, the day we've been waiting for....I have been, but just was too under the weather to even watch TransWarp play..mostly slept. I had one of those migraines that just wouldn't go away and you had to keep your head in a certain position..bah. With a six way tie going into the final round, who would have thought that GM Sergei Karjakin would come out on top as the winner! Congrats on a great tournament for him as well as GM Fabiano Caruana and GM Wesley So, winners of Group B and C in that order.



Round 13 - Sunday the 1st
Group GM A

G. Kamsky ½-½ S. Movsesian
M. Adams ½-½ L. van Wely
L. Dominguez 0-1 S. Karjakin
A. Morozevich 1-0 V. Ivanchuk
J. Smeets ½-½ L. Aronian
Y. Wang 1-0 M. Carlsen
T. Radjabov ½-½ D. Stellwagen

GM Magnus Carlsen takes his first loss at a bad time, when a win would have tied him with GM Sergei Karjakin for the win in Group A. All Groups had a clear winner, in Group B, GM Fabiano Caruana beat GM Nigel Short to take a clear victory and will be invited to the A group next year. And the other kid wonder GM Wesley So took clear 1st in Group C advancing to Group B next year. This was a pretty good tournament overall!


Round 13 - Sunday the 1st
Group GM B

A. Motylev 1-0 R. Kasimdzhanov
D. Navara ½-½ H. Mecking
Z. Efimenko 1-0 A. Volokitin
F. Caruana 1-0 N. Short GM Caruana with the Group B win.
J. Werle ½-½ D. Reinderman
F. Vallejo Pons 1-0 K. Sasikiran
E. l'Ami ½-½ Y. Hou
GM Fabiano Caruana


Round 13 - Sunday the 1st
Group GM C

E. Iturrizaga 1-0 R. Pruijssers
M. Leon Hoyos 0-1 A. Gupta
D. Harika ½-½ A. Giri
F. Holzke ½-½ O. Romanishin
A. Bitalzadeh 1-0 F. Nijboer
W. So ½-½ D. Howell GM So wraps up the C group with an awesome tournament.
M. Bosboom 0-1 T. Hillarp Persson

GM Wesley So

All images courtesy of Coruschess 2009 Copyright CorusChess 2009

I almost cannot wait for Corus 2010!! This is one of my favorite tournaments!

With the draw, GM Wesley So wins and will be invited to play in Group B next year, maybe he will dominate that group with another year under his belt. Congrats to all the winners, Crosstables will be posted below, courtesy of CorusChess 2009