1st Campomnes memorial Cup: Jun Zhao takes the cup, photo presentations

When everybody is talking about Le Quang Liem, Wesley So, and Anton Filipov as the favorites to win the first ever staging of the Campo memorial, another unheralded young Chinese player in the name of Jun Zhao suddenly emerged out of nowhere to win the biggest tournament to be held in the country in years. The just 11th seed Zhao actually piled up similar output of 6.5 points as that of Vietnamese grandmaster and top seed Le Quang Liem who pulls off a dramatic 9th and final round win against Chinese Jianchou Zhou, the co-leader of the tournament prior to the final round. But superior tie break points enable Zhao to take the Campo cup. Zhao was undefeated with five wins and four draws. He produced an impressive 2800 performance rating and at one time, was performing at 2990. Zhao and Liem will split the $19,000 first prize. Wesley So and Darwin Laylo finished the tournament with 5.5 points good for 7 and 8 place respectively.

In the Women section, WGM Yang Shen emerged as the sole winner with dominating performance. Shen tallied 7.5 points scoring 6 wins with just 3 draws. Jenny Rose Palomo and WFM Shercila Cua emerged as the best Filipina competitors, finishing in 7 and 8th place respectively.

Emmanuel Emperado captured the Challengers Cup with 8.0 points out of possible 9.

The 2nd stage of the Campo memorial will be held in Vietnam next year.

Final Rankings after 9 rounds
Round 9 results

Important Note: ChessHeroes is a free, non profit blogsite. All the photos here are not intended for commercial purposes neither do I sell any of them. However, if you wish to re-post them, please feel free to use the photos providing that we follow responsible publishing ethics as Campomanes cup is a major and memorial tournament.

1st Campo Cup winner. GM Jun Zhao. He was nearly caught by Liem at the end.

The ice cool top Vietnamese grandmaster, Le Quam Liem. He doesn't show much facial and body expression. In fact it is nearly impossible to read his mind to get a hint if he's confident or dissatisfied the way things is going. He just sat right there. Very little movement unless he makes his move or write them down.

Sorry third placer, GM Jianchou Zhou. A draw with Le Quam Liem in the final round would probably assure him of co-first place finisher but Liem has different things in mind.

NCFP President Prospero Pichay Jr. He too has some ideal pose in mind to face the photographers.

Scrambling to see the pairing list. The arbiter kept yelling to the players in a authoritarian tone to hurry to their respective boards as the game was about to begin but how could you expect to have them properly organize if you provide them with just one small white board for all the parings list of the open, women and challengers section? There are more or less 200 of them squeezing to see the pairing list, not to mention the curious onlookers, journalist etc.

Top seed, GM Le Quang Liem and an unfamiliar Indian woman player. They never seemed to mind the disorder and just happy to have their pictures taken :)

Such is the shock and awe of having to face a super grandmaster in the first round!

Kazakhstan's number one. GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev.

Top seed WGM Xue, Zhao (2462). She placed solo second behind Shen.

GM Merab Gagunashvili (2596), from Georgia

India's no 5. GM Chanda Sandipan (2637). Produced a result below everyone's expectation, finished 23rd over all.

GM Tamaz Gelashvili (2605) also from Georgia.

The stare. Winner of the 4th PGMA Cup last year and the 6th Prospero Pichay Cup. Another great tournament for him. Finishing a decent six place over all.

A new Humpy Koneru in the making. 16 year old Indian girl prodigy, WIM Rout Padmini upset Asia's first ever grandmaster, Eugene Torre in round one. Padmini actually was a bit tense before the start of the game as she is facing a chess legend of Asia. she finished 21st over all.

GM Eugene Torre. Still fighting it despite being inactive in major chess tournament.

GM Sharavdorj. One of only two Mongolian grandmaster.