World-class Filipino chess players

Of the top 23 seeded participants in the World Chess Cup 2009 who are all 2700-rated players, two of them lost to much lower rated opponents.

One is No.16-seed GM Sergei Movsesian (2718) who bowed out of the tournament after a shocking defeat in the hands of No.113-seed GM Yu Yangyi (2527) of China in a 1.5-0.5 score.

The other one is No.21 GM David Navara (2707) who lost to No.108-seed GM Darwin Laylo (2552) in Game 2 of Round 1. Navara and Darwin will face each other in the tiebreaker after a 1.0-1.0 standing.

But regardless of the final result of the Navara-Laylo tiebreaker match, the underdog Laylo of the Philippines has already proven that he can be in the company of world-class players.

To overemphasize it, Laylo's win over Navara in Game 2 of Round 1 attests to the highly competitive abilities of Filipino chess players.

Meanwhile, all of the top 14 seeded players in the World Chess Cup 2009 have already conquered their Round 1 opponents to make it to Round 2. They are:

Gelfand, Boris 2758
Gashimov, Vugar 2758
Svidler, Peter 2754
Morozevich, Alexander 2750
Radjabov, Teimour 2748
Ivanchuk, Vassily 2739
Ponomariov, Ruslan 2739
Grischuk, Alexander 2736
Jakovenko, Dmitry 2736
Wang, Yue 2734
Eljanov, Pavel 2729
Karjakin, Sergey 2723
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2719
Shirov, Alexei 2719