The battle has not even started yet, but the seeding alone speaks of an accomplishment already well done.
The country's No.1 player today, 16-year old GM Wesley So, is the No.4 seed in a FIDE Category 17 (2658 Elo points), all-GM, high-profile tournament.
For a politically fucked-up, and economically challenged third-world country whose people source their inspiration mostly from their sports heroes and barely from their political leaders, to see a self-made grandmaster in the company of world-class players already inspires a nation.
GM So is an inspiration, a very young hero who reminds us that indeed the Filipino can be among the world's best.
Over chessgames.com, the home of Barangay Wesley, we supporters of GM Wesley have this kind of fun to make a promise in relation to Wesley's campaign in Biel.
For the sake of fun, I have this forecast: GM Wesley to finish in Top 3. If my forecast does not hit the mark, then I would kill this blog . . . for good.
Ten Grandmasters, FIDE Category 17 (2658 Elo points). First round : 19th July 2010
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| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France, 19 yo Elo 2723 | Evgeny Tomashevsky Russia, 23 yo Elo 2708 | Fabiano Caruana Italy, 17 yo Elo 2697 | Wesley So Philippines, 16 yo Elo 2674 | Anish Giri Netherlands, 16 yo Elo 2672 |
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| Dmitry Andreikin Russia, 20 yo Elo 2650 | Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son Vietnam, 20 yo Elo 2617 | David Howell England, 19 yo Elo 2616 | Parimarjan Negi India, 17 yo Elo 2615 | Maxim Rodhstein Israel, 21 yo Elo 2609 |
Photos from official website
1 Comment:
You can't be serious with this promise: "For the sake of fun, I have this forecast: GM Wesley to finish in Top 3. If my forecast does not hit the mark, then I would kill this blog . . . for good."
Are you? Its an elite cast of today's juniors!
I hope you are right and I am wrong. I am afraid Wesley would repeat his SPICE performance here to protect his rating.
I am most interested with the possible revanche of So against Giri.
_The Chess Connoisseur
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