SO good

SO far, SO good. Wesley beat his 3rd-round opponent to post 2.5 points after three rounds of play in the ongoing World Junior Chess Championship 2008 in Turkey.

He is paired against GM Manuel Hoyos Leon (2543) of Mexico in the 4th round where he will be handling the black pieces on Board 5.

Round 4 starts at around 7:30pm (Philippine time) August 5, 2008. The game can be viewed live here

Meanwhile, Haridas Pascua finally nailed his first point after beating his 3rd-round opponent, Vural Ozge (1853) of the host country.

Here is the 3rd-round game of Wesley (copied from the forum on wesley's games at chessgames.com) as posted by zanshin.

[Event "2008 World Junior Championship"]
[Date "2008.08.04"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Wesley So"] [Black "Denes Boros"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e5 4. dxe5 dxe5 5. Qxd8+ Kxd8 6. Bg5 c6 7. Bc4 Ke8 8. Nf3 Nbd7 9. O-O-O Be7 10. Bh4 Ng4 11. Bg3 f6 12. Nd2 b5 13. Be6 Nc5 14. Bxc8 Rxc8 15. f3 Nh6 16. Bf2 Rc7 17. Nb3 Ne6 18. Rd2 Nf7 19. Rhd1 h5 20. a3 g6 21. Be3 h4 22. h3 f5 23. exf5 gxf5 24. Na2 c5 25. Nc3 Nd4 26. f4 Nxb3+ 27. cxb3 e4 28. Nd5 Rc6 29. Nxe7 Kxe7 30. Rd7+ Ke6 31. Rxa7 Rg8 32. Rdd7 Nd6 33. Bf2 Nc8 34. Rg7 Rd8 35. Bxh4 Rdd6 36. Raf7 e3 37. Rf6+ Kd5 38. Rxf5+ Kd4 39. Re5 c4 40. Be1 Rg6 41. Rd7+ Rcd6 42. Rxd6+ Nxd6 43. Rg5 Re6 44. Bc3+ Kd3 45. Kd1 e2+ 46. Ke1 Ne4 47. Rd5+ Kc2 48. Re5 Rxe5 49. Bxe5 Kd3 50. bxc4 bxc4 51. f5 Nc5 52. Bc3 Ke3 53. Bd2+ Ke4 54. f6 1-0

Wesley wins in 1st Round

GM Wesley So (2577) conquered his first round opponent, FM Djuraeb Sokhib (2324) of Tajikistan, in the ongoing World Junior Chess Championship 2008 in Turkey.

The tournament adopts a 13-round Swiss System format that runs from August 2 to 16, 2008.

Seeded 11th in a field of 108 players, Wesley will next face IM Sengupta Deep (2454) of India in the second round holding the black pieces.

Unfortunately, fellow campaigner Haridas Pascua (2174) lost his first round assignment against IM Melkumyan Hrant (2507) of Armenia.

More obstacles come in Haridas’ way as he is pitted against the tournament’s No.3 seed, GM Andreikin Dmitry (2604) of Russia in the second round.

Wesley beats Mark

I can't resist the urge to post the game between GM Wesly So (2577) and GM Mark Paragua (2523). The game above was played during the 3rd round of the national grand finals (qualifying stage) in preparation for the country's participation in the 38th World Chess Olympiad to be held in November of this year in Dresden, Germany.

The tournament runs from July 1 up to July 14 at the Kaban ng Hiyas Bldg. in Mandaluyong City. The top five winners in men and women categories will qualify for the chess olympiad.