So and Caruana made great runs at the 2009 World Cup. They fought valiantly throughout the event. Both had chances to make it to the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, their spectacular journeys end here. However, there is little doubt that both of them will have long and promising careers.
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Round 4. Rapid 3. |
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| match | match score |
White | Result | Black | |
| 1 | 2.5-2.5 | Gelfand, Boris (ISR) | ½-½ | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (FRA) | View |
| 2 | 1.5-3.5 | Caruana, Fabiano (ITA) | ½-½ | Gashimov, Vugar (AZE) | View |
| 6 | 4-1 | Malakhov, Vladimir (RUS) | 1-0 | So, Wesley (PHI) | View |
| 7 | 2.5-2.5 | Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) | ½-½ | Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) | View |
| 8 | 2.5-2.5 | Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) | ½-½ | Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS) | View |
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Round 4. Rapid 4. |
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| match | match score |
White | Result | Black | |
| 1 | 3-3 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (FRA) | ½-½ | Gelfand, Boris (ISR) | View |
| 7 | 3-3 | Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) | ½-½ | Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) | View |
| 8 | 3-3 | Jakovenko, Dmitry (RUS) | ½-½ | Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) | View |
http://cup2009.fide.com/round.php
Now they will head into the Blitz playoff.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Go Ponomariov!
While I knew that Wesley’s ride must come to an end, I couldn’t believe he got spanked so bad during the tiebreaks.
The local GMs here say that Wesley’s weakness is his technique. He’s fabulous in the opening and his tactics are off the chart but his technique is a bit weak. It’s what will cause him to hit a ceiling when the super GMs start to prepare for him specifically.
Susan, as a GM yourself and having seen Wesley’s games, do you agree with this?
SCUGrad, as I said before, Wesley has enormous natural talent. But unless he will improve his weaknesses and enhance his various areas of strength, he will have a hard time now that the elite players will seriously prepare when they play him.
Karjakin and Radjabov both faced similar problems in spite of their early success. They had to work hard to overcome “the wall”. I do not want to go into details about his weaknesses in public for the obvious reason.
His success in the World Cup can be a both a good and bad thing. The good thing is he now knows that he can hold against the best of them. But the bad is he is no longer a “surprise” to the top players. So in order to consistently have success against top level opponents, he needs proper coaching and assistance.
Only Wesley can decide how far he wants to go in chess.
Best wishes,
Susan
SCUGrad, pardon the noobish question – what is the difference between technique and tactics? you mentioned that Wesley So is strong in tactics but weak in technique…
To Wesley’s High School friend –
‘Tactics’ are short term operations,using forcing moves,which aims for immediate concrete gain (such as winning material or mate) – Nunn
“Technique” on the other hand is positional play (and during the endgame,the ability to correctly make use of one’s advantages & exploit the opponent’s weaknesses).
Amar
Technique is about converting an advantageous position into a win, and hold a draw if the position is even. So it can involve tactics, but it’s also much more than tactics.
Before this competition, Wesley So was saying that he knew he needed a proper training environment. He was telling me that he paid one of those online chess tutors/coaches but they were terrible! Anyway, I hope he gets a good coach soon.
I’m going to dance with him on our Jr-Sr Prom 🙂
Jane, Wesley’s High School Friend
Hope they will be better next year!
Who will tell the weakness on technique (positional play) from the weakness or tactics? Only the chess coach? Can the player find himself/herself?
“I’m going to dance with him on our Jr-Sr Prom :)”
Wow, Wesley scores a mate … a dance-mate! Party on, kids. And don’t ever talk about chess the whole night.