2nd Subic International open: GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan is the man!

First from the Middle East, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran

If my memory serves me correctly, no players coming from the Middle East has won a major tournament in the Philippines. So we may be seeing history here. As we have stated before, Filipinos, Chinese and Indians owns local tournaments. Not anymore. Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami finally introduced himself to local chess fans by winning the 2nd edition of Subic open that saw the participation of 17 GMs and and 14 IMs, many of them GM candidates. GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami finished the tournament undefeated as he posted 5 wins and 4 draws for a total of 7 points, half a point behind his 7 pursuers. Magahmi has a performance rating of 2698, a huge improvement from his luckluster performance at Asian Continental Championship of just 2480, finishing only at 37th place. The best finishers among Filipinos are IMs Bitoon, Sadorra, GMs Paragua and Gonzales who only manages to garnered a total of 5.5 points good for 14, 15, 19 and 20th place respectively.

With this, the Subic tournaments finally draw to a close. Now all is quiet again in the Eastern front. It's been three weeks of non stop blogging for us. Hope you will continue to follow this blog as we will continue our usual regular habit of one post per day. Have to gather more information on what's next for our Filipino players and of course for Wesley So. Hope Wesley would quickly recover from the bad tournament and regain his old form in no time.

For complete results of the 9th and final round please go HERE. Replay of the games from the top boards can be view HERE.

Again, many thanks for following!

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2593	7,0	2489	2500
2		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	6,5	2552	2561
3	IM	Yang Kaiqi	CHN	2413	6,5	2535	2540
4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2523	6,5	2498	2520
5	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2558	6,5	2486	2496
6	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2588	6,5	2478	2486
7	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2625	6,5	2470	2477
8	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2570	6,5	2411	2420
9		Yu Yangyi	CHN	2433	6,0	2562	2574
10	IM	Ashwin Jayaram	IND	2413	6,0	2444	2477
11	GM	Negi Parimarjan	IND	2592	6,0	2434	2444
12	GM	Dao Thien Hai	VIE	2546	5,5	2511	2525
13	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	5,5	2490	2502
14	IM	Bitoon Richard	PHI	2479	5,5	2476	2500
15	IM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2451	5,5	2451	2475
16	FM	Arvind C J	IND	2275	5,5	2447	2460
17	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2553	5,5	2445	2450
18	IM	Tania Sachdev	IND	2423	5,5	2415	2438
19	GM	Paragua Mark	PHI	2529	5,5	2406	2420
20	GM	Gonzales Jayson	PHI	2465	5,5	2391	2407
21	IM	Nguyen Thanh Son	VIE	2448	5,5	2383	2394
22	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2423	5,5	2325	2341
23		Jia Haoxiang	CHN	2344	5,0	2427	2467
24	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2426	5,0	2419	2443
25		Bagamasbad Efren	PHI	2283	5,0	2418	2440
26	GM	Laylo Darwin	PHI	2509	5,0	2410	2425
27	CM	Nguyen Hoang Nam	VIE	2281	5,0	2401	2416
28	FM	Priyadharshan K	IND	2411	5,0	2398	2425
29	IM	Nolte Rolando	PHI	2479	5,0	2398	2415
30		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	5,0	2396	2409
31	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	5,0	2380	2395
32		Milagrosa Alexander	PHI	2227	5,0	2374	2387
33	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	PHI	2474	5,0	2317	2323
34	IM	Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	4,5	2470	2511
35		Habla Jony	PHI	2300	4,5	2466	2493
36		Lou Yiping	CHN	2410	4,5	2451	2494
37		Wan Yunguo	CHN	2434	4,5	2395	2414
38	WGM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2304	4,5	2393	2430
39	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	VIE	2518	4,5	2371	2384
40	IM	Nadera Barlo A	PHI	2400	4,5	2291	2314
41	FM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2391	4,5	2239	2264
42		Yu Lie	CHN	2307	4,0	2473	2482
43		Senador Emmanuel	PHI	2360	4,0	2450	2478
44	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2407	4,0	2446	2477
45	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	4,0	2422	2448
46		Olay Edgar Reggie	PHI	2348	4,0	2409	2451
47		Garcia Jan Emmanuel	PHI	2292	4,0	2408	2437
48		Wang Li	CHN	2401	4,0	2400	2421
49	IM	Tirto	INA	2417	4,0	2396	2420
50		Tejas Ravichandran	IND	2177	4,0	2384	2395
51		Florendo Paulo James	PHI	2257	4,0	2343	2356
52	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	INA	2447	4,0	2301	2307
53		Salcedo Richilieu	PHI	2203	4,0	2293	2318
54	FM	Segarra Randy	PHI	2316	4,0	2292	2321
55		Arroyo Christian	PHI	2213	3,5	2412	2420
56		Lluch Victor	PHI	2260	3,5	2371	2383
57		Portugalera Ric	PHI	2240	3,5	2355	2392
58		Lkhamsuren Uuganbayar	MGL	2038	3,5	2340	2352
59		Legaspi Rhobel	PHI	2358	3,5	2309	2324
60		Andador Rolando	PHI	2286	3,5	2308	2335
61	IM	Bancod Ronald	PHI	2356	3,5	2274	2292
62	FM	Chua Zheng Yuan Terry	SIN	2250	3,0	2400	2406
63	FM	Simanjuntak Sebastian	INA	2260	3,0	2389	2403
64		Li Panru	CHN	2146	3,0	2376	2393
65		Morazo John Ranel	PHI	2133	3,0	2374	2384
66		Ochoa Carl Victor	PHI	2276	3,0	2346	2382
67		Pascua Haridas	PHI	2359	3,0	2331	2346
68		Mariano Nelson III	PHI	2092	3,0	2311	2339
69		Causo Deniel	PHI	2367	3,0	2275	2289
70		Diez Allan	PHI	0	2,5	2286	2313
71	FM	Castellano Christopher	PHI	2295	2,5	2252	2288
72		Fernandez Dandel	PHI	2066	2,0	2311	2327
73	WIM	Nadig Kruttika	IND	2361	2,0	2285	2309
74		Chua Aaron	MAS	2116	1,5	2118	2249

Chess is the most beloved non-contact game in the Philippines

Street chess in Manila. Photo with kind permission to Daniel Y. Go

Contrary to what some expats beleive that chess is hopeless and dying in the Philippines (which I respectfully have to disagree, I'm Manila based chess blogger, witnessing the progress first hand), a survey by the Social Weather Station (SWS) shows that chess in the country is experiencing an all time high in terms of popularity. Although billiards and bowling remains the most successful non contact/physical games for the Philippines in the international sports scene (RP has 6 world pool champs, bowling has 3 world champs), it is chess that remains the most beloved non-physical sports for most Filipinos. In a recent article by Mahar Mangahas at Inquirer.net;

Chess is the No. 1 game. It turns out that chess is the Filipinos’ most popular game, meaning non-physical sport. Those citing it as the game they play most frequently are 15.6 percent in the country. This projects to 8.5 million adult chess players nationwide, based on a population of 54.1 million Filipino adults when the survey was done.

And no surprised that the sport is widely being played around the Metro than the rest of country where tournaments and clubs are being organized here and there like mushrooms. Not to mentioned that most of our top players, chess media personnel, are also based in the Metro.

Chess is relatively more popular in Metro Manila, where it is cited by 20 percent, than in the rest of Luzon (18 percent), in Visayas, and in Mindanao (the last two both 12 percent).

And if you think that the sport is played mainly by the 'tambay or the lower classes, then you misinterpret chess culture in the Philippines in its entirety.

The popularity of chess grows with education and socio-economic class. It is the favorite game of only 1 percent of those who didn’t finish elementary school, 10 percent of those with some high schooling, 20 percent of those with some college, and 26 percent of college graduates. Only 11 percent of class E adults, compared to 24 percent of class ABC adults, call chess their favorite game.

It was not mentioned how many Filipinos plays chess online but I'm pretty sure that the numbers would greatly surprised everyone. Chess is the undisputed non-physical sport in the archipelago and the most passionate about the sport in all of Asia. It is with these people that CH draw strength and inspiration.

2nd Subic International open round 7: Iranian GM takes lead

Top Iranian GM and 2nd seed, 25 years-old Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (2593)

You don't see this everyday in Philippine soil. Filipinos, Chinese and Indians players basically have no regards with other nationalities in local tournaments but here in Subic, Iranian GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan is now leading 74 other players with only two more rounds to play. GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsanis is best remember to many chess enthusiast as the winner of a series of exhibition matches with former world champion Anatoly Karpov that was held earlier this year in Tehran, Iran. Best Filipino performer of the tournament so far is IM Richard Bitoon who is at 13th place with 4.5 points. Even if he wins his last two games, Bitoon may not get a GM norm when the tourney ends. Hope my calculation is wrong.

For round 7 results, please go HERE. Pairings for round 8 is HERE. And for Live/Replays of the games in the top boards, you can view them HERE

Rank after Round 7

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2593	6,0	2472	2484
2	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2558	5,5	2478	2491
3	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2523	5,5	2468	2492
4		Yu Yangyi	CHN	2433	5,0	2581	2587
5		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	5,0	2544	2556
6	GM	Dao Thien Hai	VIE	2546	5,0	2491	2507
7	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	5,0	2477	2492
8	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2588	5,0	2459	2467
9	GM	Negi Parimarjan	IND	2592	5,0	2438	2452
10	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2553	5,0	2434	2438
11	IM	Yang Kaiqi	CHN	2413	4,5	2535	2542
12	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2625	4,5	2476	2486
13	IM	Bitoon Richard	PHI	2479	4,5	2471	2504
14		Lou Yiping	CHN	2410	4,5	2446	2506
15	IM	Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	4,5	2445	2498
16	IM	Ashwin Jayaram	IND	2413	4,5	2430	2473
17	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2570	4,5	2410	2420
18	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	4,5	2392	2410
19	GM	Laylo Darwin	PHI	2509	4,5	2390	2407
20	GM	Paragua Mark	PHI	2529	4,5	2384	2399
21	WGM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2304	4,5	2358	2403
22	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2407	4,0	2486	2498
23	IM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2451	4,0	2464	2501
24		Senador Emmanuel	PHI	2360	4,0	2446	2484
25	FM	Arvind C J	IND	2275	4,0	2425	2438
26		Wang Li	CHN	2401	4,0	2411	2443
27	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2426	4,0	2400	2430
28	GM	Gonzales Jayson	PHI	2465	4,0	2383	2403
29	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2423	4,0	2290	2305
30		Yu Lie	CHN	2307	3,5	2479	2488
31		Habla Jony	PHI	2300	3,5	2469	2508
32	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	3,5	2468	2514
33	IM	Tania Sachdev	IND	2423	3,5	2454	2495
34		Wan Yunguo	CHN	2434	3,5	2433	2463
35		Bagamasbad Efren	PHI	2283	3,5	2420	2451
36		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	3,5	2417	2440
37		Arroyo Christian	PHI	2213	3,5	2414	2426
38		Garcia Jan Emmanuel	PHI	2292	3,5	2413	2455
39		Olay Edgar Reggie	PHI	2348	3,5	2396	2452
40	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	VIE	2518	3,5	2396	2405
41	IM	Tirto	INA	2417	3,5	2392	2425
42	IM	Nguyen Thanh Son	VIE	2448	3,5	2384	2400
43	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	PHI	2474	3,5	2300	2305
44		Jia Haoxiang	CHN	2344	3,0	2475	2485
45	FM	Priyadharshan K	IND	2411	3,0	2445	2478
46	IM	Nolte Rolando	PHI	2479	3,0	2434	2463
47	CM	Nguyen Hoang Nam	VIE	2281	3,0	2404	2426
48		Li Panru	CHN	2146	3,0	2401	2410
49	FM	Chua Zheng Yuan Terry	SIN	2250	3,0	2394	2400
50		Tejas Ravichandran	IND	2177	3,0	2389	2404
51		Milagrosa Alexander	PHI	2227	3,0	2372	2389
52		Florendo Paulo James	PHI	2257	3,0	2362	2376
53		Andador Rolando	PHI	2286	3,0	2338	2382
54		Legaspi Rhobel	PHI	2358	3,0	2325	2350
55	IM	Bancod Ronald	PHI	2356	3,0	2275	2300
56	FM	Segarra Randy	PHI	2316	3,0	2268	2303
57	FM	Simanjuntak Sebastian	INA	2260	2,5	2411	2421
58		Lluch Victor	PHI	2260	2,5	2388	2394
59		Morazo John Ranel	PHI	2133	2,5	2371	2384
60		Lkhamsuren Uuganbayar	MGL	2038	2,5	2345	2355
61	IM	Nadera Barlo A	PHI	2400	2,5	2331	2349
62		Portugalera Ric	PHI	2240	2,5	2326	2372
63		Pascua Haridas	PHI	2359	2,5	2307	2323
64		Mariano Nelson III	PHI	2092	2,5	2304	2341
65		Causo Deniel	PHI	2367	2,5	2298	2316
66	FM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2391	2,5	2293	2322
67	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	INA	2447	2,5	2284	2289
68		Ochoa Carl Victor	PHI	2276	2,0	2402	2437
69		Salcedo Richilieu	PHI	2203	2,0	2347	2359
70		Fernandez Dandel	PHI	2066	2,0	2335	2346
71	WIM	Nadig Kruttika	IND	2361	1,5	2271	2302
72	FM	Castellano Christopher	PHI	2295	1,5	2234	2273
73		Diez Allan	PHI	0	0,5	2346	2367
74		Chua Aaron	MAS	2116	0,5	2284	2322

Photo Album of 8th Asian Continental Chess Championship: and the Wesley So look alike!

Wrong folks. The photo on the left is not Wesley So but Vietnamese IM Nguyen Thanh Son! Notice the striking resemblance, eh?


After the tournament official website experienced some bandwidth problems with the photos, finally, the webmaster got everything in order again and this allows us to view the complete pictures of the players that participated at ACCC. For complete photos from the Open Section of the tournament, please see them HERE. And for the Women Section, they are over HERE. Browsing through the photos, I made a discovery. There is one Vietnamese player though, that bears striking resemblance with Wesley So, at least at first glance. That lad is no other than IM Nguyen Thanh Son. It would be nice to see these two come face to face with each other on the board. The So-Son match up.

2nd Subic International open round 4: Filipinos still struggling; Indian, Chinese still dominating

15 year old untitled Chinese player, Yu Yangyi performing at around 2770 in his last 15 games in Subic.

The 2nd Subic International Championship is not as colorful and well covered as the recently concluded 8th Asian Continental Championship also here in Subic. In fact, some Filipino chess enthusiasts are loosing interest in the tourney. With good reasons. The Philippines top 4 players begged off from the tournament and some top Chinese players returned home for their own national championship. Makes worse by Filipinos continued struggle against their foreign counterparts. Nonetheless the Asian Chess Federation is not abandoning the tournament and still offers live games of top 5 board pairings for the day. Live/replays of games can be view HERE

Going into the fifth round, an Indian and a Chinese leads the tournament, both with perfect score of 4.0 points. So far, IM Julio Sadorra remains the best performer among Filipino players, occupying the 11th spot with 3.0 points a full point behind the leaders. GM Bong Villamayor on the other hand is on the verge of falling to below 2400 Elo rating if he continue to struggle for the remainders of the tournament. Last ACCC, Bong has a performance rating of just 2375. At the ongoing 2nd Subic open, he has thus far a mediocre performance rating of just 2220. Not your usual grandmaster.

Yu Yangyi, the 15 year old Chinese prodigy who finished third place over all last Asian Continental championship continues his impressive runs with a tournament rating performance of 2847. Last ACCC, Yi has a performance rating of almost 2700. Untitled Chinese player, the current leader of the tournament, Xiu Deshun is performing as high as 3156.

Round 5 results is HERE. Round five pairings is HERE.

Rank after Round 4

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	4,0	2570	2579
2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	4,0	2430	2445
3		Yu Yangyi	CHN	2433	3,5	2596	2609
4	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2558	3,5	2445	2462
5	GM	Dao Thien Hai	VIE	2546	3,5	2435	2448
6	IM	Yang Kaiqi	CHN	2413	3,0	2560	2576
7	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2625	3,0	2469	2487
8	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2523	3,0	2460	2518
9	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	3,0	2446	2550
10	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2593	3,0	2442	2457
11	IM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2451	3,0	2438	2516
12	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2588	3,0	2438	2446
13	IM	Tania Sachdev	IND	2423	3,0	2424	2512
14	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2553	3,0	2420	2424
15	IM	Bitoon Richard	PHI	2479	3,0	2399	2445
16		Jia Haoxiang	CHN	2344	2,5	2503	2518
17		Yu Lie	CHN	2307	2,5	2489	2496
18	FM	Priyadharshan K	IND	2411	2,5	2478	2500
19	IM	Nolte Rolando	PHI	2479	2,5	2475	2570
20		Wan Yunguo	CHN	2434	2,5	2429	2502
21		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	2,5	2425	2488
22	IM	Tirto	INA	2417	2,5	2424	2523
23	IM	Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	2,5	2406	2520
24	GM	Negi Parimarjan	IND	2592	2,5	2406	2426
25		Lou Yiping	CHN	2410	2,5	2405	2535
26	IM	Nguyen Thanh Son	VIE	2448	2,5	2383	2416
27	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	VIE	2518	2,5	2373	2386
28	GM	Laylo Darwin	PHI	2509	2,5	2353	2378
29	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	2,5	2317	2326
30	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2407	2,0	2480	2494
31	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2426	2,0	2467	2571
32	GM	Gonzales Jayson	PHI	2465	2,0	2431	2506
		Wang Li	CHN	2401	2,0	2431	2506
34	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2570	2,0	2427	2429
35	IM	Ashwin Jayaram	IND	2413	2,0	2426	2501
36	GM	Paragua Mark	PHI	2529	2,0	2413	2419
37		Garcia Jan Emmanuel	PHI	2292	2,0	2385	2477
38	WGM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2304	2,0	2273	2343
39	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2423	2,0	2259	2282
40		Senador Emmanuel	PHI	2360	1,5	2560	2581
41		Olay Edgar Reggie	PHI	2348	1,5	2519	2524
42		Habla Jony	PHI	2300	1,5	2512	2518
43		Arroyo Christian	PHI	2213	1,5	2449	2463
44	FM	Simanjuntak Sebastian	INA	2260	1,5	2446	2456
45	FM	Arvind C J	IND	2275	1,5	2438	2479
46		Ochoa Carl Victor	PHI	2276	1,5	2437	2449
47		Milagrosa Alexander	PHI	2227	1,5	2410	2420
48	FM	Chua Zheng Yuan Terry	SIN	2250	1,5	2403	2425
49		Lluch Victor	PHI	2260	1,5	2397	2413
50		Li Panru	CHN	2146	1,5	2394	2414
51	IM	Nadera Barlo A	PHI	2400	1,5	2387	2451
52		Florendo Paulo James	PHI	2257	1,5	2387	2400
53		Fernandez Dandel	PHI	2066	1,5	2382	2401
54		Morazo John Ranel	PHI	2133	1,5	2379	2416
55		Causo Deniel	PHI	2367	1,5	2370	2426
56		Pascua Haridas	PHI	2359	1,5	2356	2409
57	FM	Segarra Randy	PHI	2316	1,5	2353	2483
58		Lkhamsuren Uuganbayar	MGL	2038	1,5	2342	2362
59		Legaspi Rhobel	PHI	2358	1,5	2323	2383
60	IM	Bancod Ronald	PHI	2356	1,5	2322	2411
61	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	PHI	2474	1,5	2314	2326
62	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	INA	2447	1,5	2290	2297
63	FM	Castellano Christopher	PHI	2295	1,5	2218	2308
64		Bagamasbad Efren	PHI	2283	1,0	2462	2477
65	CM	Nguyen Hoang Nam	VIE	2281	1,0	2446	2458
66		Tejas Ravichandran	IND	2177	1,0	2430	2466
67		Salcedo Richilieu	PHI	2203	1,0	2382	2395
68	FM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2391	1,0	2360	2427
69		Andador Rolando	PHI	2286	1,0	2347	2463
70		Portogalera Ric	PHI	2240	0,5	2395	2413
71		Diez Allan	PHI	0	0,5	2393	2412
72		Chua Aaron	MAS	2116	0,5	2374	2387
73	WIM	Nadig Kruttika	IND	2361	0,5	2365	2423
74		Mariano Nelson III	PHI	2092	0,5	2340	2364

Videos: Chess in RP curriculum

A late find, but since the 2009 school year will finally start one week from now, and so is the historical moment in Philippine education of including chess in school curriculum, this video worth another look. Speaking were GM Eugene Torre and GM Wesely So, throwing their full support for Department of Education and the just established National Chess Academy. A must view!

Video #1 (English) saw a grade school boy (starting 1:21) sacrificed a rook, to GM Torre and GM Gonzales delight.

Video #2 (Tagalog) has this following interview of another grade school boy:

(starting 01:47 seconds)
Question: Why do you love playing chess?
Boy: So I can check mate my opponents.

Asian Continental Championship round 11: Ganguly wins the tourney, Antonio to world cup of chess; So, Torre losses

GM Regelio Antonio, top Filipino finisher and one of the "Old Guard" of Philippine chess

As everyone among the top boards were settling for quick draws, which is quite understandable, Wesley So decided to make things a bit more complicated and enters a new and dangerous line of the Rossolimo Variation. Wesley's choice of 11.Qxc5?! against GM Le Quanf Liem was never seen before and the choice remains shrouded in mystery. But that's Wesley's style. Whether it's another idea of pawn advance on the queen side, I say only Wesley can tell. Eventually, Wesley burns the clock for the rest of the game, got into all kinds of trouble and lost the match. A sorry loss for Wesley. There is nothing more painful than loosing a game on the final day of a tournament. So has a tournament rating performance of 2568 with 4 wins, 2 losses and 5 draws.

Now, for many Wesley So fans followers, set aside the petty ramblings and make way for serious discussions. You'll do Wesley a huge, huge favor.

To wrap things up, Indian and Chinese dominance of the sports in the continent remains as strong as ever. GM Surya Shekhar of India won on tie break over Chinese GM Zhou Weiqui to claim the title. Both finished with similar score of 8.0 points a piece. GM Antonio on the other hand settled for a quick 12 move draw with GM Zhou Weiqui. Antonio finished the championship with 7.5 points good for 3rd to 8th place and more importantly, Antonio will be at Khanty- Mansiysk, Russia for the world cup of chess later this year. GM Torre was also not so fortunate as he was defeated handily by first seed, GM Krishnan Sasikiran. Torre and So both finished the tournament with 6.5 points good for 21 and 22 place respectively.

It's not over yet folks. Now let us turn our attention to 2nd Subic International Chess Tournament slated May 24- June 1. Although I really hate this follow up system by NCFP of two consecutive tournaments. More to come...








For complete results from the final round, go HERE

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2625	8,0	2546	2554
2	GM	Zhou Weiqi	CHN	2563	8,0	2505	2515
3		Yu Yangyi	CHN	2433	7,5	2575	2582
4	GM	Yu Shaoteng	CHN	2504	7,5	2570	2585
5	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2591	7,5	2545	2551
6	GM	Antonio Rogelio Jr	PHI	2518	7,5	2529	2544
7	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2590	7,5	2525	2535
8	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2635	7,5	2499	2506
9	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2558	7,0	2577	2587
10	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2682	7,0	2528	2536
11	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	7,0	2510	2526
12	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2570	7,0	2508	2514
13	GM	Negi Parimarjan	IND	2592	7,0	2494	2502
14	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2588	7,0	2490	2497
15	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2557	7,0	2489	2498
16	GM	Kazhgaleyev Murtas	KAZ	2626	7,0	2474	2481
17	GM	Filippov Anton	UZB	2584	7,0	2471	2479
18	GM	Dao Thien Hai	VIE	2546	6,5	2553	2569
19		Wan Yunguo	CHN	2434	6,5	2536	2556
20	IM	Al Sayed Moh Mad N	QAT	2496	6,5	2535	2551
21	GM	So Wesley	PHI	2641	6,5	2520	2527
22	GM	Torre Eugenio	PHI	2561	6,5	2501	2511
23		Ding Liren	CHN	2458	6,0	2596	2604
24	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2523	6,0	2549	2558
25	GM	Iuldachev Saidali	UZB	2497	6,0	2548	2569
26	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2407	6,0	2548	2554
27	IM	Toufighi Homayoon	IRI	2478	6,0	2547	2567
28	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	IRI	2526	6,0	2543	2559
29	GM	Tu Hoang Thong	VIE	2506	6,0	2525	2543
30		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	6,0	2518	2532
31		Pak Evgeniy	KAZ	2328	6,0	2512	2524
32		Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan	MGL	2461	6,0	2504	2523
33	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	6,0	2480	2497
34	GM	Laylo Darwin	PHI	2509	6,0	2477	2488
35	GM	Al-Modiahki Mohamad	QAT	2585	6,0	2464	2472
36	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2423	6,0	2463	2483
37	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2593	6,0	2458	2463
38	GM	Wang Rui	CHN	2434	6,0	2436	2446
39	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2553	6,0	2434	2440
40		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	5,5	2554	2560
41	IM	Bitoon Richard	PHI	2479	5,5	2532	2549
42	IM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2474	5,5	2521	2550
43	FM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2391	5,5	2515	2521
44	FM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2441	5,5	2513	2530
45	GM	Mahjoob Morteza	IRI	2498	5,5	2495	2514
46	GM	Bui Vinh	VIE	2522	5,5	2474	2481
47	IM	Nolte Rolando	PHI	2479	5,5	2468	2486
48	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	VIE	2518	5,5	2450	2462
49	GM	Hossain Enamul	BAN	2531	5,5	2447	2453
50	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	PHI	2474	5,5	2396	2405
51	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	INA	2447	5,0	2544	2551
52	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2426	5,0	2537	2544
53	GM	Gonzales Jayson	PHI	2465	5,0	2532	2548
54	IM	Ashwin Jayaram	IND	2413	5,0	2514	2534
55	IM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2451	5,0	2511	2528
56	IM	Nguyen Thanh Son	VIE	2448	5,0	2508	2528
57	FM	Wahono Awam	INA	2391	5,0	2503	2513
58		Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	5,0	2478	2493
59	GM	Gomez John Paul	PHI	2538	5,0	2473	2480
60		Garma Edgardo	PHI	2421	5,0	2470	2485
61	GM	Paragua Mark	PHI	2529	5,0	2462	2471
62	IM	Akshayraj Kore	IND	2404	5,0	2437	2451
63	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	5,0	2414	2429
64	GM	Kim Alexey	KOR	2481	5,0	2388	2396
65		Yang Kaiqi	CHN	2413	5,0	2384	2395
66		Wang Li	CHN	2401	4,5	2498	2506
67		Lou Yiping	CHN	2410	4,5	2481	2501
68	IM	Hassan Abdullah	UAE	2322	4,5	2479	2488
69	FM	Priyadharshan K	IND	2411	4,5	2462	2479
70		Garcia Jan Emmanuel	PHI	2292	4,5	2447	2452
71		Yu Lie	CHN	2307	4,5	2440	2444
72	FM	Novita Anjas	INA	2345	4,0	2484	2494
73	FM	Alhuwar Jasem	UAE	2293	4,0	2478	2485
74	FM	Abu Sufian Shakil	BAN	2378	4,0	2472	2477
75		Causo Deniel	PHI	2367	4,0	2458	2463
76	FM	Hoang Canh Huan	VIE	2378	4,0	2455	2469
77		Jia Haoxiang	CHN	2344	4,0	2451	2460
78		Pascua Haridas	PHI	2359	4,0	2450	2468
79	IM	Bancod Ronald	PHI	2356	4,0	2446	2450
80		Olay Edgar Reggie	PHI	2348	4,0	2423	2461
81	CM	Nguyen Hoang Nam	VIE	2281	4,0	2392	2426
82		Elorta David	PHI	2372	3,0	2494	2508
83	IM	Khamrakulov Dzhurabek	UZB	2524	3,0	2481	2490
84		Chua Aaron	MAS	2116	2,0	2400	2415
85		Celis Solomon B Iii	MAC	2007	1,0	2388	2401
86	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	UZB	2552	0,0	0	0