Sunday, February 22, 2009

Saturday Backlash

"By taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing over it, he is superior."

2009 Aeroflot Open: GM Wesley So commits some mental lapses in the middle game and lost his match in just 24 moves while handling the white pieces to GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan. Wesley now has piled up a total of two wins, two defeats and a draw good for just 2.5 points with three more rounds to play. It was a sweet revenge for Safarli who lost to So in their previous encounter at Turkey. Wesley's legion of fans are not used to see their hero loosing two games early in the tournament but just exactly what this blog had predicted before the start of the tournament, don't expect Wesley to wield some magic again by winning three or four straight in a row, Corus style. Wesley So's round 6 assignment is another junior prospect, GM Sanan Sjugirov (2562) of Russia. If my memory serves me correctly, Sjugirov is one of the players So tied for first place in 2005 YWCC U-12.

But definitely the news of the day is the impressive victory of Gata Kamsky against Topalov in their Challenger's Match. The game dragged for 73 moves of pure mental torture for both players. For Kamsky, it was like finally having a drink of a glass of cold water after days in the desert. Kamsky used to be an automatic for the Bulgarian but the bullying ends yesterday and more importantly Kamsky level the score 2-2 and put the pressure back on Topalov who was still probably in shock by the defeat.

In the meantime, no English translation for Linares official website? Do Spanish is now the official language of chess? Just asking.
















Not leaving the playing hall. He was still probably in shock.

3 comments:

timhortons knight chess blog said...

i disagree, wesley is just out of form, take a look at the set of player he played in the last 6 round, corus has the same set of player, only corus has more aggressive type.

aeroflot is a category 17 player but depends of the type of player that well be match against you, now he happen to confront player of lesser strentgh, let say you can rank them category 13 the most.

He could flatten out these type of opponent if hes on his peak form.

Im talkin only about the last 6 game.

lets hope he could handle well the remaining rounds.

Des Catolos said...

I really hope so. let's face facts that most, if not all Filipino chess bloggers, (you can count them in your fingers) really depends on Wesley's success. Without Wesley, we're all mum.

Anyways, I'm still thinking if there's still a possibility that Wesley will face Mamedyarov? I don't care a thing about Bacrot. He's nothing. I know that Shak would be too much for him but if he does win, a dozen losses would simply swept away with this one victory. Nothing to loose for him, in the first place.

Des Catolos said...

I think Shak had withdrawn from Aeroflot? I just mentioned a while ago about a possible meeting with Wesley now he's going home. what a coincidence. :)