SO, MALAKHOV FORGED A TIE BREAK MATCH

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So (2640) and Russian GM Vladimir Malakhov (2706) settled another draw after 38 pushes late Tuesday (RP Time) and now tied, 1-1, and forged three game tie-break rapid matches in the on-going 2009 World Chess Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk Center of Arts in Russia.

Malakhov, a two-time world championship finalist in 2004 and 2007, opened his game with an Nf3 or Reti Opening and transpose into a Chebanenko variation of the Slav defense.

The two chess warrior who already assured of US $30,000 (about P1.46 million) in prize money by reaching the last 16 earlier ended their first game on Monday in a draw after 65 moves of another Slav Defense with the 16-year-old So handling the white pieces.

The winner of So-Malakhov three game tie-break rapid matches on Wednesday (RP Time) will meet GM Peter Svidler (2754) of Russia, who brought downed GM Alexei Shirov (2719) of Spain, 1.5-0.5, for the quarter-finals.

GM Sergey Karjakin (2723) of Ukraine and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2719) of Azerbaijan, on the other hand cruised into the quarter-finals after beating GM Nikita Vitiugov (2694) of Russia, 1.5-0.5, and GM Viktor Laznicka (2637) of Czech Republic, 1-5.0-5, respectively.

Other last 16 match-up was ended into a draw, 1-1, and forced a three game tie-break. They are GM Boris Gelfand (2758) of Israel versus GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2718) of France; GM Alexander Grischuk (2736) of Russia opposite GM Dmitry Jakovenko (2736) of Russia; GM Vugar Gashimov (2758) of Azerbaijan vs. GM Fabiano Caruana (2652) of Italy and GM Ruslan Ponomariov (2739) of Ukraine vs. GM Etienne Bacrot (2700) of France.

Formerly World Chess Championship, the World Chess Cup is a seven-round knockout format with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The finals or seventh round consists of four games.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO.