So’s biggest challenge yet

So faces tough challenge in Tata Steel chess
Published : Saturday, January 04, 2014 00:00 
Article Views : 178 Written by : Ed Andaya

GM Wesley So opens the new year 2014 with the biggest and most challenging tournament in his career — the 76th Tata Steel Chess Championship on Jan.10-26 in Wijk aan zee, Netherlands.

Buoyed by his smashing showing highlighted by five titles last year, So will take on the world’s leading players as the ninth seed in the prestigious,12-player round robin competition formerly known as Corus.

“It will be another big challenge for me ( to compete in Tata Steel),”said So, who made history by winning the country’s first ever gold medal in the 27th Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia last July.

“The Tata Steel is one of the world’s strongest tournaments with a long list of champions that included newly-crowned world champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway said So, whose perfect record last year included victories in Reykjavik Open in Iceland last February, Calgary Classic in Canada last May, Las Vegas Chess Festival in the US last June and 17th Unive Crown in Netherlands last October.

So also served as coach of the star-studded US team in the World Chess Team Championship in Turkey last month.

The 20-year-old Filipino champion, who also vaulted to No. 28 overall in the recent FIDE list with an ELO of 2719, will actually make his first appearance in Tata Steel Division A.

A second year business and finance student at the Webster University-Missouri, So rose to prominence by winning the title with 9.5 points/13 games in Tata Steel Division C in January, 2009.

He finished fourth with 7.5/13 in Tata Steel Division B in January, 2010.

This year, So will face a star-studded field that includes:

► Levon Aronian of Armenia ( ELO 2803).
► Hikaru Nakamura of the United States (ELO 2786)
► Fabiano Caruana of Italy (ELO 2782)
► Boris Gelfand of Israel (ELO 2777)
► Sergey Karjakin of Russia (ELO 2756)
► Lenier Dominguez of Cuba (ELO 2754)
► Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany (ELO 2737)
► Anish Giri of the Netherlands ( ELO 2734)
► Pentala Harikrishna of India (ELO 2708)
► Richard Rapport of HUngary (ELO 2687)
► Loek van wely of the Netherlands (ELO 2678).

This year, the players will have one round in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and one round in the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven.

Formerly called the Corus, the tournament takes place every year in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands.

It was called the Hoogoven tournamentuntil 1999 after which the Dutch steel and aluminium producer Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel to form the Corus Group.

Last year’s edition was won by Carlsen with 10 points, one and half a points ahead of Aronian and two points clear of former champions Viswanathan Anand of India and Karjakin.

In 2012, Aronian won over Carlsen and Teimor Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

The long list of famous Hoogoven/Corus/Tata Steel champions includes Max Euwe, Bent Larsen, Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Efim Geller, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, Mikhail Tal, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik,Garry Kasparov, Anand, Veselin Topalov, Aronian, Karjakin, Carlsen and Nakamura.

Anand, however, is the only player to have won five titles of the Hoogovens/Corus chess tournament in its long history, athough three of these were shared wins.

Anand also holds the record of most consecutive games played at this tournament without a loss (70 – from 1998 to 2004).

Euwe, Portisch and Korchnoi won Corus four times each.

Meanwhile, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) announces the country’s newest gain — 29th place in the recent FIDE list.

The Philippines placed several notches higher than chess heavyweights like Latvia, Sweden, Argentina and Denmark.

Aside form So, the other leading Filipino players in the list GMs Julio Catalino Sadorra (ELO 2595), Oliver Barbosa (ELO 2579), John Paul Gomez (ELO 2541), Joseph Sanchez (ELO) 2525, Rogelio Antonio Jr. (ELO 2517), Darwin Laylo (ELO 2511), Mark Paragua (ELO 2499), Rogelio Barcenilla (ELO 2475) and Roland Salvador (ELO 2462).

Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre slipped to 11th place with an ELO of 2427.

Source: http://www.journal.com.ph