Philippine chess hierarchy

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, on January 8, 2010.)

Philippines’ Top 10
FIDE Rating List
January 2010

1. GM Wesley So 2656
2. GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr 2572
3. GM Darwin Laylo 2556
4. IM Rogelio Barcenilla 2518
5. GM John Paul Gomez 2507
6. GM Eugene Torre 2506
7. GM Mark Paragua 2497
8. GM Joseph Sanchez 2490
9. IM Roland Salvador 2472
10. IM Julio Catalino Sadorra 2466

Based on the latest FIDE Rating List GM Wesley So at 2656 remains the top player from the Philippines. This also makes him the 77th highest rated player in the world and, still only 16 years of age, the 6th among the world’s Juniors (under-20).

Wesley is ranked no. 8 in Asia. Never seen the Asian best list before? Well, here it is:

Asia’s top 10 Players
FIDE Rating List
January 2010

1. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2790
2. GM Wang Yue CHN 2749
3. GM Wang Hao CHN 2715
4. GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2702
5. GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2673
6. GM Penteala Harikrishna IND 2672
7. GM Ni Hua CHN 2657
8. GM Wesley So PHI 2656
9. GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly IND 2654
10. GM Krishnan Sasikiran IND 2653

Yup, that’s right -- four Chinese, four Indians, one Uzbek and a Filipino.
One of the Philippines’ most theoretically prepared players is IM Julio Catalino Sadorra.

He is also among our hardest-working players too, although he has the tendency to upset a highly rated GM one round and then lose badly to an untitled hustler in the next.

"Ino" recently won the "SOS" (Secrets of Opening Surprises) Prize in Issue no. 11 for employing a novelty suggested in SOS issue no. 10.
In SOS no. 10 the Russian GM Igor Lysyj wrote an article on the Kruppa Variation of the Gruenfeld Indian, a position arising out of the opening moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bg5.

The Kruppa Variation
White’s idea is to tie Black temporarily to the defense of the e7-pawn and succeed in advancing his pawn to d5. Lysyj then looked at the various Black attempts at counterplay and how he can meet them. Among this mass of variations is the following game, won by the brilliant attacker from Israel:

Lysyj, Igor (2576) -- Sutovsky, Emil (2629) [D85]
Moscow Aeroflot op-A (6), 19.02.2007
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Lysyj made the following comments on this game:
1) The move 10...f5 was first employed in this game.
2) He (Lysyj) had played extremely badly and lost after 12.Qxb7. Better would have been 12.Nd2! and he claims an advantage for White.

Well, in the following game Sadorra gets a chance to use this idea, and even improves on it! With his permission, I am reproducing his notes below.

Sadorra, Julio Catalino (2451) -- Kazhgaleyev, Murtas (2626) [D85]
8th Asian Continental Open Subic Bay PHI (1), 13.05.2009
(ANNOTATION FROM IM SADORRA)
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You keep reading in the papers about our chessplayers complaining about the government not giving them enough money to support themselves. What you don’t see in the papers is that many of our chessplayers just play billiards and computer games while waiting for the next handout. A few years ago our First Gentleman made a substantial financial contribution to make sure that our chessplayers were adequately prepared for the SEA Games, and they responded with one of their worst performances.

The problem, therefore, is not solely not enough money. There is also not enough theoretical preparation on the part of our players. Julio Catalino Sadorra is a shining example of how hard our players should be working.