Confident So leaves for Corus tournament
Cebu Daily News First Posted 07:30:00 01/13/2010
http://globalnation.inquirer.net
READY AND CONFIDENT. That’s how Filipino GM Wesley Barbasa So described his condition as he leaves for the Netherlands today to compete in the 72nd Corus international chess championship (formerly Hoogovens) which runs from Jan. 15-31 at the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
“I hope to do well and earn some Elo rating points in Corus,” So told CDN.
The 16-year-old Filipino champion from Bacoor, Cavite will be accompanied by his long-time personal manager Reginald Tee, who will take the place of his father-coach William So.
So, whose ELO rating of 2656 puts him at No. 76 in the world in the January FIDE quarterly ratings, will now compete in the much-stronger, category-16 Group B where the average rating is Elo 2627.
So was elevated to Group B after winning Group C last year.
This year, So is seeded sixth in the 14-player group where GMs Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania and Pentala Harikrishna of India are the top contenders.
Naiditsch is the top seed with an Elo of 2689. Nisipeanu is seeded second with an Elo of 2677, while Harikrishna is third with an Elo of 2672.
The other Group B participants are GMs Emil Sutovsky of Israel, seeded fourth with ELO 2666; Ni Hua of China, fifth with ELO 26656; Tomi Nyback of Finland, seventh with ELO 2628; Varuzhan Akobian of the United States, eighth with ELO 2624; Parimarjan Negi of India, ninth with ELO 2620; Erwin l’ Ami of Netherlands, 10th with ELO 2606; David Howell of Eng;land, 11th with ELO of 2597; Arish Giri of Netherlands, 12th with ELO 2585; Dimitri Reindermann of Netherlands, 13th with ELO of 2575; and lone female participant WGM Anna Muzychuk of Slovakia, 14th with ELO of 2532.
Correspondent Marlon Bernardino
So can win this.