Round 2 pairings
1 Guðmundur Kjartansson (2439) Liem Le (2706)
2 Ray Robson (2628) David Recuero Guerra (2424)
3 Ruiz Sanches (2429) Vasif Durarbayli (2624)
4 Razvan Preotu (2405) Daniel Naroditsky (2601)
5 Fidel Corrales (2532) Kiewra Keaton (2391)
6 Joel Banawa (2350) Kayden Troff (2532)
7 Manuel Leon Hoyos (2512) Vitaly Neimer (2344)
8 Justin Tan (2346) Denes Boros (2468)
9 Daniel Gurevich (2314) Priyadharshan Kannappan (2460)
10 Akshat Chandra (2488) Alex Richter (2016)
11 Samuel Sevian (2484) Michael Langer (2168)
12 Gauri Shankar (2296) Jeffrey Xiong (2470)
13 Jayaram Ashwin (2468) Nicolas Checa (2266)
14 Reinaldo Vera (2449) Awonder Liang (2253)
15 Alexander Betaneli (2265) Jake Banawa (2306)
16 Ilya Nyzhnyk (2613) Nolan Hendrickson (2211)
17 Ruifeng Li (2365) Matthew Larson (2182)
18 Raymond Kaufman (2341) Hans Jung (2149)
19 James Voelker (2159) Safal Bora (2328)
20 Angelo Young (2315) Sanjay Ghatti (2120)
21 Kostya Kavutskiy (2307) Florentino Inumerable (2101)
22 Nicholas Rosenthal (2074) Sean Vibbert (2302)
23 Leif Pressman (2301) Luisa Mendoza (1982)
24 Sarah Chiang (2015) Erik Santarius (2296)
25 Doug Eckert (2228) Thalia Cervantes (1868)
Its the right decision for GM Wesley So & his coaches to WITHDRAW from participating in the 2014 SPICE CUP Open. The field is relatively weak & should GM So decides to play he stands to earn .8 to 1 elo point only but a draw can cause him a -3.5 elo at the very least. It would affect his elo & ranking in the world. Besides, the organizers of the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament in January 2015 is expected to announce on OCTOBER 23, 2015 the 12-man field in a 12 rounds event which according to its press release will comprise the top 15 chess players in the world. And GM Wesley So is currently in the top 15 according to official FIDE rankings & # 10 in the live ratings. By not playing in the 2014 Spice Cup Open, GM Wesley So is protecting his elo ratings & rankings and increase his chances of being invited in the 12-man field in the 2015 Tata Steel Chess where only the top 15 players get a chance to be invited to play in such a strong tournament. Anyway, GM Wesley So already earn $ 100 k by winning the Millionaire Chess & propelled to #10 in the live rankings. No matter what happen in the 2nd FIDE Grand Prix series GM Wesley So will still end up in the top 12 in the world by October 2015.
A friend of mine who knows someone from the organizer of the 2015 Tata Steel Chess in January 2015 a 12 participants 12 rounds tournament which will have the top 15 players in the world CONFIRMED that GM Wesley So is indeed included in those invited to play in the 2015 Tata Steel Chess Tournament on the strenght of him being in the top 15 in the September 2015 Official FIDE ranking and # 10 in the live rankings in the 2700chess.com site.
According to coach Paul, GM Wesley So will play in 1 or 2 games in 2014 Spice Cup Open BUT only as a substitute to his WebsterU team mates who will take an exam. In other words, GM Wesley So will ONLY make a Guest Apperance of sort but will still play 1 at most 2 match. Wonder who gets the credit if GM So will win & is it counted as an earn elo points? Just asking… One last thing, I hope GM Wesley So will be paired with a 2600 plus player so he can earn some decent elo points if he wins & lose only few elo points should be draw as a lost is a big NO. TY organizer 🙂