Wesley in Biel chess tournament

Thursday, July 1, 2010
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By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño



BIEL in Switzerland is not just a mere event in the chess calendar but is a festival of gargantuan proportion.

There is the master group, the main section, the Hanowa rapid, a blitz attraction, Chess 960 and simul exhibition games.

The main attraction this year though is the invitational section featuring the rising stars of tomorrow and that includes our own Wesley So.

Other young players are defending champion Maxime Maxime-Lagrave (France, 19 ,2710), Evgeny Tomashevsky (Russia, 22 ,2708), Fabiano Caruana (Italy, 17, 2675), Dmitry Andreikin (Russia, 20 , 2643), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 16, 2642), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vietnam, 20, 2642), Parimarjan Negi (India, 17 , 2636), Maxim Rodhstein (Israel, 21, 2626) and David Howell (England, 19, 2620). All are GMs.

This is a category 17 tournament with an average Elo of 2657. The format is round robin and it will start on July 19 and end on July 28.

This is the 43rd edition of this annual festival and it is a much-sought invitation among the top players.

This is an excellent chance for Wesley to close in on a 2700 rating.

Elections. It has been posted on Chessbase.com that the following presidential tickets and continental presidents have submitted their candidacies to the Fide office.

The Presidential ticket of Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov:

President: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov nominated by Russia, Argentina and Mexico.

Deputy president: Georgios Makropoulos nominated by Greece.

Vice president: Lewis Ncube nominated by Zambia.

Vice president: Beatriz Marinello nominated by Chile and Brazil.

General secretary: Ignatius Leong nominated by Singapore.

Treasurer: Mr. Nigel Freeman nominated by Bermuda.

Presidential ticket of Anatoly Karpov:

President: Anatoly Karpov nominated by France, Germany and Switzerland.

Deputy president: Richard Conn Jr. nominated by the USA.

Vice president: Jaime Aguinaldo nominated by Angola.

Vice president: Alisa Maric nominated by Serbia.

General secretary: Abd Hamid Majid nominated by Malaysia.

Treasurer: Viktor Kapustin nominated by Ukraine.

I. Continental President for Europe:

Silvio Danailov nominated by Bulgaria, Robert von Weinzacker nominated by Germany, Ali-Nihat Yazici nominated by Turkey.

II. Continental President for the Americas: Jorge Vega Fernandez nominated by Guatemala.

Erick Marvin Guevara nominated by El Salvador. III. Continental President for Asia:

Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al-Nahayan nominated by United Arab Emirates.

IV. Continental President for Africa: Dabilani Buthali nominated by Botswana.
Hesham Elgendy nominated by Sudan.

Mohammad Moammar AL-Gathafi nominated by Libya.

Lakhdar Mazouz nominated by Algeria.

Kezzie Msukwa nominated by Malawi.

Hussein Nafady nominated by Egypt.

Max Baron Nitzborn nominated by Namibia.

Fide will ratify the list of candidates during its Presidential Board meeting in Tromso, on July 24 on 25.

The Philippines was earlier reported as one of the 55 federations which have expressed their support for the candidacy of Kirsan and company.

LOCAL EVENT. The monthly kiddies champion of Talisay for June was Justice Sousa with a score of five points. Other winners were Kent Padillo, Kierlyn Sebial, Emmanuele Arcamo and Cathysienne Tabora.

The sponsors of the event were Loreto Powao, Ariel Araw-araw and Gamaliel Vicente Jr., while the tournament director was Manny Manzañares.

(boypestano@gmail.com; www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)