I am told that the information below is incorrect. Wesley is committed to participate in an event in Canada at the same time.
Filipino GMs tackle foreign bets in rich Pacquiao Cup
Philippine Daily Inquirer 12:02 am | Sunday, April 21st, 2013
THE COUNTRY’S top players, led by super Grandmaster Wesley So, will join the $100,000 Manny Pacquiao Cup Asian Continental Open and Women’s Chess Championships set May 18 to 26 at Midas Hotel in Pasay City.
Other Filipino GMs competing against a crack foreign field are Oliver Barbosa, Mark Paragua, Rogelio Antonio Jr., John Paul Gomez, Darwin Laylo and Richard Bitoon.
Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre remains undecided as the nine-round event dangling a record purse coincides with a Fide trainers seminar to be conducted by GM Efstratios Grivas of Greece who needs his assistance from May 20-24.
The top five finishers of the Open division will advance to the World Cup scheduled in August in Tromso, Norway while the women’s champion will advance to the 2014 Women’s World Championship.
So, the first Filipino to break the 2700 Elo barrier, and Barbosa are assured of slots in the 128-player World Cup, but will join the hunt for the juicy purses, the biggest ever for the event.
Barbosa finished in the top five in last year’s Asian Continental in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, while So qualified by way of the Asian 3.3 Zonal staged by Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino last January in Tagaytay City.
The Manny Pacquiao Cup is organized by the Eugene Torre Chess Foundation under the auspices of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines headed by Prospero A. Pichay Jr., the Asian Chess Federation and the World Chess Federation (Fide)
The Philippines previously hosted the Asian Continental in Cebu City in 2007 and Subic Bay in 2009 and 2010. Asian Chess Federation president Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifah Al Nahyan will be the guest of honor during the opening of the event.
Source: http://sports.inquirer.net
Go Wesley!
Wesley is best-ever Filipino GM.
Other 2600 Pinoy hopefuls, are hopeLESS.
You cannot be supportive of these Pinoy GMs who got stuck with incompetent NCFP who can’t even pay FIDE dues but ironically boasting a $100,000 tournament.
Truth hurts.
Hmmm… will he or will he not? The articles title indicates that he “will not”, but the content is stating otherwise. So? (pun intended) what is the real score?
^^^ You confused yourself. Re-read article to digest the flow of the story. If you still don’t get it, there’s Rosetta Stone.