Wesley So expected to play key role for RP in Chess Olympiad
abs-cbn NEWS.com 11/11/2008 7:51 PM
Official Olympiad Website: www.Dresden2008.com
The Philippines’ youngest grandmaster (GM) Wesley So is expected to lead the five-man RP Team in the 38th World Chess Olympiad, which will begin on Wednesday (November 12) at the Freiberger Arena in Dresden, Germany.
According to SportsNews.ph, it will be So’s second appearance in the world’s biggest chess competition since his Olympiad debut in Turin, Italy two years ago. The 15-year-old prodigy is currently the Philippines’ highest-rated player with an ELO of 2610. ELO is chess’ statistical rating system.
The 38th Olympiad will be marked as So’s 12th major international tournament for the year, which includes a string of sensational victories in the prestigious Dubai Open last April and in the World Under-16 Chess Team Olympiad in Mersin, Turkey last August.
So will be handling board two for the RP Team while veteran GM Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor is tasked to handle top board in the absence of GMs Eugene Torre, Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Mark Paragua.
Torre manned the top board for the nationals in all but two Olympiads since the 1974 Nice Olympiad, while Paragua held the fort in the Turin Olympiad in 2006.
Aside from So and Villamayor, other members of the team seeking to improve its respectable 44th-place finish in Turin are GMs Jayson Gonzales and Darwin Laylo and International Master (IM) John Paul Gomez.
Led by non-playing team captain Torre and National Chess Federation of the Philippines executive director Willie Abalos, the Filipinos will leave for Dresden on Tuesday.
The first round is scheduled on Thursday, November 13.
Multi-titled Russia, with all its team members boasting more than ELO 2700 ratings, is the top seed in the 13-round tournament which ends on November 26.
The Philippines is seeded 38th, a notch behind Southeast Asian Games rival Vietnam (37th) but well ahead of Indonesia (68th).
Source: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/
‘respectable 44th-place finish in Turin’
Who respects this result? Philippines are only good in their own region, with weak countries surrounding them. There they can brag about being better than Russia and other nonsense.
Philippines have no good chess players. Even Torre was an accident.
Philippines has had so many potential good players that can actually compete at a high level. Unfortunately, being a 3rd world country, corruption is still a big part of why grassroot development has not occurred in this country. Also, this is a basketball-crazy country even if they know that they do not even stand a chance againts China, more so againts the rest of the world. Basketball players are paid more than the chess players, even if basketball players in this country cannot even beat US collegiate players, while chess players in this country can actually play competitively againts the best in the world.
If he stays in the Philippines, So wil fade away as all did. Our great Campo cannot help him any more. He did what he could, now it’s up to others.
“Our great Campo cannot help him any more. He did what he could, now it’s up to others.”
WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT??
YOUR GREAT CAMPO HELPED HIMSELF, USED AND ABUSED FILIPINO TALENTS. HE WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEMISE PHILIPPINE CHESS, A FORMER PREMIER CHESS POWER IN ASIA, AHEAD OF CHINA AND INDIA.
CAMPO’S CROOKED WAYS OF POCKETING FEES AND PLAYERS’ PRIZES RESULTED IN THE SHUTTING DOWN OF CORPORATE SUPPORT FOR PHILIPPINE CHESS, SUPPRESSED THE DEVELOPMENT OF FILIPINO CHESS TALENTS, AND SET BACK PHILIPPINE CHESS FOR THE MOST PART OF HIS SO CALLED CROOKED FIDE LEADERSHIP.
PICHAY’S SHORT TIME OF LEADERSHIP OF PHILIPPINE CHESS, PARTICULARLY THE DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG CHESS TALENTS, NOT ONLY THE FAVORITE ONES THAT CAMPO USED TO DO, HAVE FAR SURPASSED HIS SO CALLED 50 YEARS OF “HONORARY, MY A., LEADERSHIP.
NOW YOU KNOW THE REAL TRUTH. CAMPO WAS THE HONORARY HEAD CRAB HONCHO WHO CLIMBED UP THE TOP, WHO ENRICHED ONLY HIMSELF.
you can thank your great campo for the great development of philippine chess under his 50 years of “honorary leadership.”
the philippines was asia’s premier chess power, before campo’s crooked legacy of looting corporate sponsors of philippine chess.
now we are seeing the philippine chess’ resurgence under pichay’s equal opportunity leadership. but he may be too late as china and india, and vietnam too are so far ahead in developing their young chess talents.
Cheers everyone! Let’s pray Mr. So finds a trainr who can pushhim into chess hights of Carlus Mangsen!