Wesley returns, places 5th in Aeroflot blitz chess

A few days' rest was enough for Wesley So to regain his swagger as he finished a fighting fifth in the Aeroflot Open blitz chess championship at the Hotel Gamma-Delta in Moscow, Russia on Thursday.

The 17-year-old Filipino champion, who withdrew from the tournament proper due to exhaustion, scored six wins to finish in a two-way tie for fifth to sixth places with GM Nikita Vitiugov of Russia with 13 points.

The 23rd-seeded So finished 1.5 points behind eventual champion GM Shakhiyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who had 14.5 points, and one point behind runner-up GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, who had 14 points.

He defeated Russians Piort Korobkov, and GMs Vitaly Kunin and Ian Nepomniachtchi, Argentine GM Ruben Felgaer, Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons and Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem.

He drew his matches against IM Aleksei Pridorozhni of Russia, GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia and Ponomariov.

GM Darwin Laylo, who shared the Group B title with Armenian GM Tigran Kotanjian and Russian GM Nikolai Kabanov last Wednesday, struggled and finished tied for 134th to 150th with three wins (7.5 points).

Two other Filipino campaigners finished in the upper half of the standings in the tournament that attracted 194 players, including 111 GMs and 32 International Maters from 34 countries.

Moscow Open runner-up IM Oliver Barbosa and IM Richard Bitoon finished tied for 55th to 66th places (10 points), while IM Oliver Dimakiling wound up tied for 87th to 98th places (9.0 points).

GM John Paul Gomez and National Master Paulo Bersamina did not compete.

The Filipinos are scheduled to return to Manila on February 20.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/213376/so-returns-places-5th-in-aeroflot-blitz-chess

Le Quang Liem's successfully defending the Aeroflot Open title 2011

Congratulations to Grandmaster Le Quang Liem for successfully defending the Aeroflot Open title with the winning the Aeroflot Chess Open 2011.
Going into the last round on Wednesday, he was tied with Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov for the first place with 6 points each. In the final round Liem drew with Rauf Mamedov but Cheparinov went down fighting to GM Nikita Vitiugov.

The 10th Aeroflot Open chess festival takes place February 7-18, 2011 in Moscow, Russia. The organizers are the “Aeroflot-Russian Airlines”, the Association of Chess Federations and the Russian Chess Federation. Three sections play nine rounds Swiss for a a total prizefund of 160,000 Euros, including the prizes for the qualifier for the World Blitz Championship on February 17th.

http://www.vietnamchess.com.vn/

Wesley So withdrawing from the main tournament Aeroflot 2011

MOSCOW, Russia — With Filipino grandmaster Wesley So withdrawing from the main tournament and GM John Paul Gomez losing for the first time in six games, GM Darwin Laylo carried the fight for the Philippines in the 2011 Aeroflot Open chess championship.

Laylo, ever so eager to step out of the shadows of his younger and equally talented countrymen, overwhelmed upset-conscious Bayarsiakhan Gundavaa of Mongolia to forge a four-way tie for the top spot after the sixth round Sunday.

The 30-year-old campaigner from Lipa City, who earned his GM title in 2007, moved into a tie with GM Dorian Rogozenco of Romania, GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia and GM Wen Yang of China with five points out of a possible six.

Rogozenco caught the Filipinos’ attention when he pulled the rug from under Gomez, snapping a two-game winning streak and dealing the pride of Biñan, Laguna his first setback.

Kotanjian whipped GM Zhao Xue of China and Wen outplayed GM Alexei Gavrilov of Russia in other featured sixth-round matches to join Laylo and Rogozenco in the lead.

Gomez dropped to a tie for fifth to 10th places with 4.5 points.

Moscow Open runner-up IM Oliver Barbosa also made his presence felt by humbling Mikhail Antipov of Russia in 78 moves of the Slav to raise his record to 3.5 points on three wins, one draw and two losses.

Also with the same score is IM Oliver Dimakiling, who crushed Dmitry Kurukin of Russia for his third win against one draw and two losses.

Aside from Gomez, the only other casualty for the five-man Filipino delegation in Group B is IM Richard Bitoon, who bowed to Vitaly Kunin of Germany.

Bitoon had three points on two wins, two draws and two losses.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/213003/gm-laylo-steps-up-carries-fight-for-pinoys-in-aeroflot-open

Best Games of Chess Informant 108

The proceedings at the outset of the World Championship match between Anand and Topalov, played in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, were reminiscent of the duel between Fischer and Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. Despite the enormous distance that separates the venues of the two matches, their common denominator is Iceland. In 1972, the entire world awaited the stormy Cold War confrontation of East and West awakened by the match. In 2010, the eruption was the awakening of the volcano Eujafjallajökull. The tumultuous atmosphere caused by Anand's delayed arrival, the resulting one-day postponement of the match, Topalov's excellent victory in the first (and most beautiful) game of the match, and Anand's quick recovery in the second game, were all evocative of the events in 1972.

Chess Theory

Two Knights Defense (Ulvestad Variation)