Asian Continental Chess Championship - Round 7: Wesley So did another Houdini

Harry Houdini, the great Hungarian-American escapologist once said that "No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth."

Ah, Wesley So, the fifteen year old chess risk taker, who found himself about to get drown against an unknown and unheralded but red-hot iron Qatari International Master had just escaped again, Houdini style, as the "Filipino killer" IM Al Sayed Mohamad fails to make use of his advantage of having two connected queen side passed pawns. Again, for the second time in the tourney we saw Wesley just tossed his rook (29. Rxg7) right into the face of his opponent in the hope of getting a perpetual check. In fact the rook sacrifice is not very hard to see. Watching the live feeds, yours truly was jumping all over the place, hoping that Wesley will not over look it! Fortunately, Al Sayed did! It's kind of weird, really. We see many GMs time and time again do material sacrifices just to obtain winning combination but here, GM Wesley So, with live rating of 2653 sacrificing major pieces here and there just to obtain a draw against opponents who are less than 150 points below his rating! With the draw, Al Sayed remains undefeated against Filipino players thus far in the tournament. My hat is off for Al Sayed for his brilliant performances against the Philippines top three players. Your name will surely remember by this blogger for many time to come.

In other results, Filipino top performer of the ACCC, IM Richard Bitoon suffered his first loss of the tournment as he bowed to GM Zhou Weiqui of China. But don't look back now. Seven time Philippine champion, GM Rogelio "Joey" Antonio is just half a point behind the leaders, GM Sandipan and GM Ganguluy of India. Joey is tied from 3rd to 10th place with 5.0 points. And by the way. About that Korean GM, Alexey Kim. Is he really a Grand Master?

For complete results of Round 7, go HERE. And for Round 8 pairings, check them out HERE.

Rank after Round 7

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	GM	Sandipan Chanda	IND	2558	5,5	2583	2597
2	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	IND	2625	5,5	2528	2540
3		Ding Liren	CHN	2458	5,0	2588	2602
4	GM	Dao Thien Hai	VIE	2546	5,0	2579	2597
5	GM	Le Quang Liem	VIE	2591	5,0	2550	2561
6	GM	Moradiabadi Elshan	IRI	2526	5,0	2535	2549
7	GM	Antonio Rogelio Jr	PHI	2518	5,0	2478	2496
8	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2590	5,0	2477	2486
9	GM	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	2588	5,0	2472	2481
10	GM	Zhou Weiqi	CHN	2563	5,0	2464	2474
11	GM	Yu Shaoteng	CHN	2504	4,5	2590	2626
12		Xiu Deshun	CHN	2422	4,5	2577	2588
13		Yu Yangyi	CHN	2433	4,5	2556	2566
14	GM	Murshed Niaz	BAN	2407	4,5	2541	2549
15	IM	Al Sayed Moh Mad N	QAT	2496	4,5	2535	2567
16	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2570	4,5	2524	2530
17	GM	So Wesley	PHI	2641	4,5	2502	2504
18	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2513	4,5	2494	2524
19	GM	Negi Parimarjan	IND	2592	4,5	2482	2493
20	GM	Filippov Anton	UZB	2584	4,5	2459	2473
21	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2553	4,5	2428	2438
22	IM	Bitoon Richard	PHI	2479	4,0	2578	2591
23	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2523	4,0	2552	2571
24	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2682	4,0	2540	2548
25	GM	Tu Hoang Thong	VIE	2506	4,0	2534	2573
26	GM	Iuldachev Saidali	UZB	2497	4,0	2531	2569
27	IM	Toufighi Homayoon	IRI	2478	4,0	2530	2565
28	GM	Laylo Darwin	PHI	2509	4,0	2497	2524
29	GM	Paragua Mark	PHI	2529	4,0	2481	2504
30	GM	Zhou Jianchao	CHN	2635	4,0	2471	2479
31		Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan	MGL	2461	4,0	2465	2494
32	GM	Al-Modiahki Mohamad	QAT	2585	4,0	2456	2465
33	GM	Nguyen Anh Dung	VIE	2518	4,0	2451	2474
34	GM	Bui Vinh	VIE	2522	4,0	2450	2457
35	GM	Torre Eugenio	PHI	2561	4,0	2448	2454
36	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	4,0	2436	2459
37	GM	Hossain Enamul	BAN	2531	4,0	2435	2442
38	IM	Dimakiling Oliver	PHI	2426	3,5	2566	2573
39		Gao Rui	CHN	2500	3,5	2557	2590
40		Wan Yunguo	CHN	2434	3,5	2531	2570
41	FM	Batchuluun Tsegmed	MGL	2391	3,5	2530	2543
42		Pak Evgeniy	KAZ	2328	3,5	2519	2530
43	GM	Mahjoob Morteza	IRI	2498	3,5	2516	2551
44	GM	Li Shilong	CHN	2557	3,5	2516	2539
45	GM	Gomez John Paul	PHI	2538	3,5	2503	2523
46	IM	Nguyen Thanh Son	VIE	2448	3,5	2491	2525
47	FM	Priyadharshan K	IND	2411	3,5	2491	2499
48	GM	Kazhgaleyev Murtas	KAZ	2626	3,5	2459	2469
49	IM	Nolte Rolando	PHI	2479	3,5	2443	2473
50	GM	Ghaem Maghami Ehsan	IRI	2593	3,5	2442	2447
51	GM	Gonzales Jayson	PHI	2465	3,0	2605	2627
52	IM	Irwanto Sadikin	INA	2447	3,0	2578	2592
53	IM	Sadorra Julio Catalino	PHI	2451	3,0	2564	2575
54	FM	Vidit Santosh Gujrathi	IND	2441	3,0	2556	2595
55	IM	Ashwin Jayaram	IND	2413	3,0	2554	2565
56	IM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2474	3,0	2540	2602
57	FM	Wahono Awam	INA	2391	3,0	2537	2542
58		Wang Li	CHN	2401	3,0	2520	2534
59		Zhang Ziyang	CHN	2419	3,0	2517	2548
60	IM	Hassan Abdullah	UAE	2322	3,0	2513	2523
61	FM	Alhuwar Jasem	UAE	2293	3,0	2508	2515
62		Elorta David	PHI	2372	3,0	2504	2525
63	CM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2423	3,0	2503	2536
64	FM	Abu Sufian Shakil	BAN	2378	3,0	2493	2506
65	IM	Khamrakulov Dzhurabek	UZB	2524	3,0	2490	2500
66		Garma Edgardo	PHI	2421	3,0	2464	2493
67		Garcia Jan Emmanuel	PHI	2292	3,0	2460	2470
68	GM	Wang Rui	CHN	2434	3,0	2448	2471
	IM	Mas Hafizulhelmi	MAS	2425	3,0	2448	2471
70	FM	Novita Anjas	INA	2345	2,5	2521	2528
71	IM	Akshayraj Kore	IND	2404	2,5	2488	2505
72		Causo Deniel	PHI	2367	2,5	2484	2499
73	IM	Bancod Ronald	PHI	2356	2,5	2472	2484
74		Yang Kaiqi	CHN	2413	2,5	2429	2454
75	GM	Villamayor Buenaventura	PHI	2474	2,5	2419	2442
76		Lou Yiping	CHN	2410	2,0	2567	2588
77	FM	Hoang Canh Huan	VIE	2378	2,0	2504	2521
78		Pascua Haridas	PHI	2359	2,0	2498	2514
79		Jia Haoxiang	CHN	2344	2,0	2490	2502
80		Olay Edgar Reggie	PHI	2348	2,0	2481	2490
81		Yu Lie	CHN	2307	2,0	2463	2473
82	CM	Nguyen Hoang Nam	VIE	2281	2,0	2439	2449
83		Chua Aaron	MAS	2116	2,0	2430	2445
84	GM	Kim Alexey	KOR	2481	2,0	2391	2398
85		Celis Solomon B Iii	MAC	2007	1,0	2433	2455
86	GM	Dzhumaev Marat	UZB	2552	0,0	0	0