2nd straight Gold medal for So

So bags 2nd straight gold medal

MERSIN, Turkey: GM Wesley So bagged his second straight individual gold medal on board one even as the Philippines settled for third place behind India and Russia at the close of the World Under-16 Chess Olympiad at the Mersin Great Municipality Sports Hotel here.

With So and Jan Emmanuel Garcia settling for draws against their lower-rated Turkish rivals, the Filipinos closed out the prestigious tournament with a 3-1 win over Isek-Turkey and a 10-round aggre­gate of 27 points.

NM Haridas Pascua demolished Benan Kazdagli while Alcon John Datu crushed Tevfikcan Karanfil for the Filipinos’ two victories.
So, one of only two GMS entered in the tournament, settled for a draw with untitled Nasir Ekin Zeytinoglu (ELO 1883) on board one while Garcia halved the point with Ehsat Baglan on board four.

Despite the draw, So clinched his second straight individual gold medal.

The 14-year-old high-school student from Bacoor, Cavite finished with nine points on eight wins and two draws for a high 90-percent performance rating.

Overall, the Filipinos finished one and a half points behind defending champion India and top seed Russia, which finished in a two-way tie for first place with 28.5 points.

India, however, bagged the title by virtue of higher tiebreak score over Russia.

India clinched its second straight title with a smashing 3.5-.5 win over ninth seed England with IMs B. Adhiban and S.P. Sethuraman and FM K. Priyadharshan providing the much-needed victories.

Russia, bannered by IM Aleksandr Shimanov and WFM Anastasia Bodnaruk, edged third seed Azerbai­jan, 2.5-1.5.

Azerbaijan, led by GM Eltaj Safarli, finished fourth with 24.5 points, while host Turkey-A, ban­nered by FM Mustafa Yilmaz, wound up fifth with 23 points.

Garcia emerged as the country’s second leading scorer with seven points on six wins, two draws and two losses.

Pascua finished with 5.5 points on four wins, three draws and three losses on board two, while Datu wound up with 5.5 points on four wins, three draws and two losses.

Last year, So also brought home the individual gold medal with nine wins and one draw (95 percent) on board one.

The other members of the team last year were Pascua, Karl Victor Ochoa and Franz Robert Grafil.

The Philippines also finished in third place with 25.5 points behind India (28 points) and Hungary (27.5 points) in last year’s edition held Singapore.

Source: http://www.manilatimes.net