Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Wesley So skips World Junior Chess Championship, 21 October- 4 November

Study first, play later. At 16, Wesley So should be graduating in high school and would start finding a good university, most probably, abroad, (sure there's some offer), to improve his chess, studies and of course, way of living. And for sure, he will be graduating from high school this year, as Wesley decided to skip the the World Junior Chess Championship that will start tomorrow, October 21 till November 4 in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. We are not sure either if the World Youth Chess Championship this coming November in Antalya, Turkey is also part of Wesley's schedule. What we know for now is that Wesley will be playing for the World Cup of Chess slated this December in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in December. I think this is also a good time for soul searching for Wesley So, a time spent away from chess as he failed miserably at SPICE Cup 2009.

Some of our other top players also decided to skipped some major tournaments here and abroad to concentrate and give more time to their studies. GM John Paul Gomez is a graduate of Mechanical Engineer at La Salle and is vent to get his license sooner than later. IM Julio Catalino Sadorra, I believe, is in Dallas Texas now for some scholarship program in one of the top college school there. Remember this post?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two things:

1) The 2009 WJCC is in Puerto Madrin
2) Wesley did not fail "miserably" in SPICE 2009. He is merely -1 in a closely fought tournament. Get your facts straight before you post, sir.

Anonymous said...

Wesley So may enroll (scholarship, for sure) to Texas Tech University where Susan Polgar has a foundation. Hope Wesley would take it :)

Anonymous said...

i think wesley already reach his peak like mark paragua before.his games are not improving puro draw na lang ala kwenta.hirap na sya manalo.palaos na sa so

The Chess Connoisseur said...

IT is too early to say Wesley So has reached his peak. Recall that the SPICE Cup is a closed tournament which demands a completely different strategy than Open Swiss events.

Wesley lost only one game and drew the rest without a win (+0,-1,=9), so he is on minus one--the same with Hammer (+3,-2,=5) and Akobian (+2,-1,=7). The frontrunners Kuzubov, Andreikin and Mamedov were on plus one only.

Note that Mamedov scored his only win in the last round to tie Kuzubov and Andreikin.

Someone says: "He who plays to win, plays to lose." Wesley did play for a win in most games but he knew when to steer the game to draw when his winning chances ebbed away or when he was in danger of losing.

In this way he had also protected his rating. (Remember that Wesley was invited to the SPICE Cup on the strength of his rating.)

That's a hallmark of an experienced chess gladiator, and to think that Wesley is only 16 years old speaks volumes of his vast chess potentials.

The SPICE Cup is only one tournament and no definite conclusion on his chess ability could be derived from his most recent result.

http://chessconnoisseur.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

so really has to play agrresively and always go for a win to improve his rating...his live rating already starts to go down..sana di sya matulad ke mark na nalaos agad matapos makalampas ng 2600 rating...compared to caruana and carlsen malayong malayo pa si so...caruanas rating is going up and his games are really improving.his been beating 2700 players...di pa nagagawa un ni so...the best he can do is draw stronger players and beat or draw weaker players..i doubt his progress if he can ever maintain or improve his rating