THIS IS IT—RP CHESS TEAM AGAINST TOUGH FOES IN WORLD CHESS CUP

FINALLY, three Filipino representative grandmasters Wesley So, Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., and Darwin Laylo face their tough opponents last night in the first round of knock out stage format of the prestigious 2009 World Chess Cup and will ends on December 15 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

So, will have GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan, 23, is seeded 70th with his ELO of 2625 as his first opponent.

According to on-line commentary of red and white chess website, Guseinov is also one of the strong GM from Azerbaijan, but most likely he is the “”unlucky” guy to face the So (Wesley)”. If So, the youngest Filipino GM, succeeds in his first-round match, he will face either GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine or GM Alexei Bezgodov of Russia in the second round.

The 12-time national open champion Antonio, sergeant from HSSG in Philippine Army under the baton of Commanding Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit, toting an ELO of 2574, will be the underdog against defending champion GM Gata Kamsky of the United States who topped the 2007 edition at the expense of Spanish GM Alexei Shirov. “Rather unfortunate for the Phillipine second contestant. Kamsky lost many point lately but very small possibility he is off in 1st round.” Quoted as saying of the chess website.

The former Russia stalwart Kamsky who defected in the United States in 1989 reached a peak rating of 2746 and is the top board player for the United States with an ELO of 2695.

Antonio first met Kamsky in the 2005 HB Global Challenge in Minneapolis, USA. The game, where Antonio employed his pet line caro-kann defense, ended in a draw.

Should Antonio pull an upset this time against Kamsky, he will face the winner between GM Emil Sutovsky of Israel and GM Zhou Weiqi of China in the second round.

A possible So and Antonio confrontation in the third round if both of them will progress in the so called Wimbledon of chess.

Laylo, meanwhile, will test the mettle of GM David Navara of Czech Republic.

”Navara is a potential player in the same generation like Radjabov but lately not much played in strong event. Laylo will need to works very hard as Navara is no way an easy opponent.” Insisted of the on-line chess website.

It shall be recalled that Antonio first seeing in action in the World Chess Championships in1999 losing to eventual runner-up Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian in their second round matches was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA while the Marikina City native Laylo also bowed in the second round against French GM Etienne Bacrot in the last edition. So, on the other hand’s first time appearance here in World Chess Cup.

Top seed GM Boris Gelfand of Israel opens his bid against International Master Andrei Obodchuk of Russia in the knockout matches organized by the World Chess Federation.

“Should be an easy win by Gelfand.” According to on-line website.

The players, most of whom advanced through worldwide qualifiers, will play two games each on Nov. 20 (Nov.21 in Manila time) and 21 with the winner gaining the second round on Nov. 24. Tie-breaks, if necessary, will be played on Nov. 23. The total prize fund is USD $1,600,000. Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr., National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) chief, said he is confident that the three Pinoy pawn pushers will give a good performance. A fourth round finish is better performance according to Pichay.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO.