World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad

World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad
Mersin, Turkey
August 16-24, 2008
10 Rounds

Performance of RP Team after 3 Rounds

Individual performance
Board 1. GM Wesley So (3.0 points) [1, 1, 1]
Board 2. Haridas Pascua (2.0) [1, .5, .5]
Board 3. Alcon John Datu (2.0) [1, .5, .5]
Board 4. John Emmanuel Garcia (2.0) [1, 1, 0]

Team performance
Rnd 1 vs Turkiye-Girls A 4-0
Rnd 2 vs Slovakia 3-1
Rnd 3 vs Georgia 2-2

Total of 9 points out of possible 12.

Tournament's 0fficial website here

Featured game of the tournament:

FM Levan Bregadze (2399) vs GM Wesley So (2577)

Round 3

Here, White resigned after Black's 75th move Nf7. White still had 38 minutes left while Black had 44 minutes.

At first glance, the position looked equal. The materials were fairly even. I asked myself "Why did White resign?"

Ahh, the pawns and bishops. All of the White's pawns are sitting on dark squares while its bishop also sits on a dark square. Meaning, White's bishop is trapped by its own pawns.

Meanwhile, Black's pawns sit on light squares while its bishop frolics on dark squares.

In short, positional advantage.

Lesson: Don't let your pawns trap your own bishop.

An anonymous reader immediately commented on this post. The reader said:

zugzwang na to,pag Ng5 then Nh3, kain yung pawn sa f2, if the
King tries to defend, the W Knight will be captured. if the W Knight moves to
f1, Ng5 lang si wes, pag Kg1, Nh3+, taking the pawn on f2. Nagkamali yung
kalaban, dapat Nd2-f1 lang ang sayaw ng Knights, tatagal pa sana sya.