Beating Kamsky

(IN PHOTO: GM Gata Kamsky)

As GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. (2574) himself put it, he has a 30-percent chance of beating GM Gata Kamsky (2695) of USA in Round 1 of the 2009 World Chess Cup.

To be a little more precise, his chance of winning is actually 33.26 percent based on mathematical formula. That's a pretty good chance to begin with.

To romanticize the match-up a bit, the match-up Kamsky vs Antonio is a battle between No.2s. Kamsky is the No.2 player in US while Antonio is No.2 in the Philippines.

Beautifully, it's a battle between two warriors who have contrasting directions. One is going down, while the other, going up.

Kamsky had his rating peak of 2729 in October of 2008, but has been suffering a free fall since then, even dropping out of the 2700-club to as low as 2695 as of November this year.

Antonio, on the other hand is in the upswing, hitting his personal best of 2574 this month for a 17-Elo point gain over his previous rating last September due to his recent impressive campaigns in local and foreign tournaments.

Let's have a peek on the recent losses of Kamsky in a single tournament. The following games were played at the 5th FIDE Grand Prix held in Jermuk, Armenia in August of this year.





GO, GO, GO, GM Joey!!