Wesley So tops Board One and Leads Philippines U-16 Chess Team to Third Place
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.Phil
Boxing.comMon, 25 Aug 2008
Finally we have something to smile about.
The Philippine Under-16 Chess Team scored a total of 27 points after ten rounds at the World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad held in Turkey and was good enough for third place. The team is composed of Wesley So, Haridas Pascua, Alcon John Datu and Jan Emmanuel Garcia.
India, the defending champion, won on a tiebreak against second place Russia. Both teams have 28 1/2 points. The Philippines earlier scored a 3-1 victory over the fancied Russians in the seventh round of the tournament.
This conquest underscored the character of the team who had lost 1½ – 2½ to India in the sixth round. The Pinoy woodpushers also beat another chess playing nation England in the eighth round by 3-1. They scored a 3-1 win over the Turkish Isek Aquamatch chess club in their final match.
Filipino prodigy Grandmaster Wesley So was the top scorer among the Board One players with 8 wins, two draws and no losses beating Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan (7 pts.) and Aleksandr Shimanov of Russia (7.5 pts.). This gold medal winning effort will provide a much needed analgesic for our wounded sports pride after a disastrous Beijing Summer Olympics.
Our sports officials and corporate sponsors should provide more support to chess. We used to have the best chess players in Asia. Eugene Torre was Asia’s first grandmaster in 1974 and in 1982 became the first Asian to qualify for the Candidates Matches for the 1984 World Championship cycle. We used to top the Asian team championships.
But countries like China and India not only caught up with us but surpassed the Filipinos’ achievements. China has been regularly producing prodigies and first broke the Soviet dominance in the female side by winning the World Women’s crown in 1991 courtesy of Xie Jun. The reigning women’s champion Xu Yuhua is also from China.
The reigning World Men’s Champion Viswanathan Anand of India ironically learned the game when he was a six year old student in the Philippines. India and China have the best talent pool in Asia right now.
There were other Pinoy GM’s after Torre – the late Rosendo Balinas, Rogelio Antonio, Nelson Mariano, Bong Villamayor, Mark Paragua and Darwin Laylo. But So is one of a kind. He became the Philippines’ youngest International Master when he was 12 years old and our youngest GM last year. He is the seventh youngest grandmaster in chess history at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days.
So belongs to an elite group of prodigies whose members include Judith Polgar and Peter Leko of Hungary, and Magnus Carlsen of Norway who is currently in the world’s top ten. The youngest grandmaster on record is Sergey Karyakin of the Ukraine who achieved the feat aged 12 years and 7 months.
The late great Bobby Fischer became a grandmaster at age 15 years and 6 months. One doesn’t need to look far for chess talent.
Thousands if not millions of Filipino kids play chess in clubs, school and at home. We do have the inherent “diskarte” that always makes us dangerous opponents on the world stage. What we need now is more financial support for our young talent.
Our chess GM’s and IM’s have been teaching school kids but we can do more and develop a better national teaching and development system.The game has changed. Chess masters now depend on computer data bases and chess opening novelties are produced everyday. We need to adopt and use these innovations also to our advantage.
Source: http://philboxing.com
Wesley will break 2700.
On the Turkish Chess Federation webpage. The top three winning countries- India, Russia and the Philippines, had all the member chess players in them.
Now guess who was on the picture of the Philippine junior team- did not see Wesley So, but the ugly face of the felon Campomanes.
Get the hell out of Philippine chess Campo. Enough already. You have done so much damage to the Filipino chess players.
Gather you’re not fond of Campo, are you mate? I myself find Campo pretty photogenic.
Well, hello there mate. We respect your kind and your preference man.
but your choice of an old photogenic sorry old man in Campo is just hilarious 😉
And truly the other guy was right.
Wesly So, the gold medalist Filipino talent’s picture should have been there.
Not your photogenic BF Campo. What the hell was he thinking. What the hell are you thinking desperate mate;)
all hail florencio campomanes! Campo rules! Mabuhay ka!
Campo has done Philippine chess both well and ill. I think it’s unfair to paint him as an out and out villain (or hero!) Actually I think Campo is quite photogenic and is a pretty good looking guy. I remember watching him when I was a boy on the Sunday morning TV show “Chess Today” back in the 70s
Campo still shows those energy and passion after all these years. Very photogenic indeed. Let’s face it. Campomanes has done more good than ill to Philippines. I wish him all the best in the world though age is already catching up.
Sorry old mates but Wesley So has done more good for the Philippine chess than your crooked “show me the 12.8million pesos” Campomanes.
It should be Pichay’s and Wesley So’s picture there and not Campo who has always used people to get credit.
Accept and tell the truth mates. Capiz? Campo’s looks does not bring honor to the Philippines but disdain.
Mabuhay to our new Phlippine leadership. To the most honorable Pichay, to Wesley and to our upcoming young talents.
I looked up the Turkish World Junior Championship web page and indeed NO GM Wesley So but you guys’ BF Campo 😉
How low can your weazel man Campo go? What a pathetic sorry figure.
He should have the decency to get Wesley in the picture.
But the old man is not apt to learning new tricks. He’s got his old dirty tricks still in pat we can say, mates.