Pestaño: Philippine chess Olympiad lineup

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño

Chessmoso 

Thursday, July 26, 2012

THE World Chess Olympiad will be held in Istanbul, Turkey next month from Aug. 27 to Sept. 10 and the Philippine selection for the team to the Olympiad, the “Battle of Grandmasters” has just concluded.

This prestigious 16-player round robin tournament was held at two venues in the Province of Aklan--the Paraw Club in Boracay from July 14–20 and the Cabagnot Training Center in Kalibo from July 21– 26.

The GMs in the field were Oliver Barbosa (2554), Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. (2548), John Paul Gomez (2539), Julio Catalino Sadorra (2525), Mark Paragua (2508), Rogelio “Banjo” Barcenilla (2501), Darwin Laylo (2489), Eugene Torre (2469), and Richard Bitoon (2442).

Heading the qualifiers from the semifinals were IMs Oliver Dimakiling (2415) and Emmanuel Senador (Elo 2353), Fide Masters Roderick Nava (2397), Haridas Pascua (2310) and Randy Segarra (2283) and the surprise of the tournament, 15-year-old Giovanni Mejia.

The event offered P655,000 in prizes with the winner getting P150,000. GM and IM norms were also up for grabs.

Three players will be selected. Wesley So (2650) is already assured of a slot while the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) headed by chairman/president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. has the option to pick the fifth player of the men’s team and two players in the women’s team.

Competing for the three outright slots in the women’s were Woman International Masters Catherine Perena (2091) and Beverly Mendoza (2058), Woman Fide Masters Rulp Ylem Jose (2061), Jan Jodilyn Fronda (2022), Cherry Ann Mejia (1995) and Marie Antoinette San Diego (1922), Woman National Masters Jedara Docena (2061), Janelle Me Frayna (1991), and Shania Mae Mendoza (1806), Eden Tumbos (1776), Akiko Charmaine (1892) and Mikee Charlene Suede (1948).

According to Richard Bitoon (he had a fever during the tournament) , who texted me the results, the possible men’s team will be composed of Wesley, Paragua, Torre, Barbosa, and Dimakiling. Sadorra, who qualified, will not play as he has classes.

The Women’s team will be composed of Perena, Frayna, Docena, Galas and Jose.

Wesley So has been busy as a bee. After placing a respectable third place finish at the World Open in Philadelphia early this month, he proceeded to New York.

Wesley took part in a charity chess match organized by the Filipino-American Chess
Club of New York last July 11 at the Philippine Center and competed against 20 players simultaneously.

One of the 20 players he competed against was acting deputy permanent representative of the Philippine Mission to the UN Eduardo de Vega.

After New York, he went to Toronto, Canada. The tournament was a seven-round Swiss with 18 participants and organized by the Chess Institute of Canada.

He finished with a total of six points from five wins and two draws, half-a-point ahead of his closest rival International Master (IM) Nikolay Noritsyn of Canada. With his victory he won the top purse of $4,000.

So continued with his Canadian tour at the Quebec Open Chess Championship from July 21 to 28 in Montreal.

Canada’s most successful tournament attracted 9 GMs and 1 WGM, as well as 10 IMs looking for GM norms. Thirty-two players are competing in the invitational section for a first prize of $4,000.

After four rounds, So is the tournament leader and is followed closely by GM Lazaro Bruzon from Cuba (ranked 35th in the World) and IMs Bryan G Smith, Eric Hansen, Leonid Gerzhoy and Daniel Naroditsk.

So will then head to Webster University-Spice for his full- time study on a scholarship, with a brief two-week interruption to represent the Philippines in the Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.

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

Main event of the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event," which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker. This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are : Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito . Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until October 28. It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes . Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated in 10th place The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in. There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament. I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me. Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1200/2400. But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only 5 players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000! If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history. Wesley So finished 3rd in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had 4 wins and 5 draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents. So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA. GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title. Deep Blue “Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15. Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad. But with a higher tiebreak score , Ganzon took home the trophy. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot . The tournament, sponsored by DeepBlue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior players “-KC Morala, kiddie chess player and contributing journalist.. Announcement .The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1pm. Format will be Rapid and 7 rounds Swiss. Registration is P150. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Main event of the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event," which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker. This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are : Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito . Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until October 28. It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes . Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated in 10th place The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in. There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament. I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me. Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1200/2400. But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only 5 players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000! If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history. Wesley So finished 3rd in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had 4 wins and 5 draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents. So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA. GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title. Deep Blue “Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15. Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad. But with a higher tiebreak score , Ganzon took home the trophy. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot . The tournament, sponsored by DeepBlue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior players “-KC Morala, kiddie chess player and contributing journalist.. Announcement .The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1pm. Format will be Rapid and 7 rounds Swiss. Registration is P150. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Main event of the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event," which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker. This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are : Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito . Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until October 28. It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes . Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated in 10th place The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in. There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament. I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me. Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1200/2400. But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only 5 players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000! If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history. Wesley So finished 3rd in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had 4 wins and 5 draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents. So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA. GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title. Deep Blue “Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15. Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad. But with a higher tiebreak score , Ganzon took home the trophy. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot . The tournament, sponsored by DeepBlue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior players “-KC Morala, kiddie chess player and contributing journalist.. Announcement .The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1pm. Format will be Rapid and 7 rounds Swiss. Registration is P150. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Main event of the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold'em "Main Event," which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker. This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are : Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito . Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until October 28. It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes . Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated in 10th place The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in. There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament. I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me. Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1200/2400. But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only 5 players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000! If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history. Wesley So finished 3rd in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had 4 wins and 5 draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents. So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA. GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title. Deep Blue “Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15. Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad. But with a higher tiebreak score , Ganzon took home the trophy. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot . The tournament, sponsored by DeepBlue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior players “-KC Morala, kiddie chess player and contributing journalist.. Announcement .The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1pm. Format will be Rapid and 7 rounds Swiss. Registration is P150. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Karjakin,Grischuk are Rapid and Blitz champions

The Official World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships were held from July 1-11 in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. It is worth noting that the Rapid championship is a first in the history of FIDE,The total prize fund was US $400,000. Format was 16-player single round robin in Rapid and 16-player double round robin in Blitz. Rate of play were Rapid-15 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1 and Blitz-3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1. There was a Special rule. The players were not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter and accepted in case of a triple-repetition of the position or the 50-move rule Sergey Karjakin is the new World Rapid Champion. He won the competition with 11,5/15, a full point ahead of the Magnus Carlsen, after completing an incredible third day performance with 4,5/5. After two days of play and ten games Magnus Carlsen looked a certain winner. But then the Norwegian world number 1 lost two in a row, allowing Sergey to catch and then overtake him. Vassily Ivanchuk played a large part in the final result, losing on time to Sergey Karjakin in his first game of the day, then beating Magnus Carlsen in the second. Carlsen lost another game against Alexander Grischuk in round 13, and should have lost another when Veselin Topalov missed a checkmate in their final round clash. Karjakin holds the record for both the youngest International Master (eleven years and eleven months old) and youngest grandmaster in history (at the age of twelve years and seven months). The World Blitz Championship was won by Alexander Grischuk . He led almost throughout. Magnus Carlsen started slowly but finished strongly defeating Sergey Karjakin to overtake him for second place. Alexander Grischuk is a Russian grandmaster and was Russian Champion in 2009. He has won two team gold medals and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads. The players were Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Viktor Bologan, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov, Vladislav Tkachiev, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Anuar Ismagambetov, Dmitry Andreikin, Le Quang Liem, Nikolai Chadaev, Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Jumabayev Russia-China Russia defeated China 77.5-72.5 in their annual Scheveningen match, held in St. Petersburg this year from July 1-9. The Russian men's team won the classical chess 13.5-11.5 but their women went down 14.5-10.5. In rapid chess, the Russian men also won: 29-21. The Chinese women scored another victory as well, albeit with a smaller margin: 25.5-24.5. The players were Russia ( Men) -Dmitry Jakovenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nikita Vitiugov and China (Men) -Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Li Chao, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi (China) The women players were -Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalija Pogonina, Olga Girya, Baira Kovanova (Russia) and Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Huang Qian, Shen Yang, Ding Yixin (China) Poker Antonio Esfandiari has won the largest buy-in tournament in poker history, the $1 million dollar Big One for One Drop at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. By winning the event, along with the largest cash prize in the history of poker at $18,346,673, Esfandiari is now ranked number one for all-time tournament poker winnings. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Rapid and Blitz World Championship 2012

The World Chess Federation (Fide) has decided to put more importance to Rapid and Blitz format by rating players under these time controls starting this month. Previously,only ratings under the Classical format was recognized. Its about time as a lot of tournaments worldwide are being held especially in the Rapid format due to lack of time and in order to finish tournaments much earlier. All tournaments of Cepca are Rapid. Watching a game under the Classical format is a drag ,online or live, as it takes 5 hours to finish a game and sometimes up to 7 hours. It stretches one`s patience to the limit no matter how interested you are. To promote under these formats,the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2012 is now on-going in Astana, Kazakhstan from July 1-10. A total of 16 Grandmasters will participate for the prize fund of $400 000 . It is worth noting that the Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships will be held for the first time in the history of the Fide! For the games in the World Rapid Chess Championship each player will have 15 minutes + 10 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. The Final Tournament will be played in three days as a single round-robin event, 5 rounds per day (or 15 rounds in three days). Here are the participants in the final. 1.Magnus Carlsen 2835 2. Teimour Radjabov 2784 3. Sergey Karjakin 2779 4. Alexander Morozevich 2769 5. Vassily Ivanchuk 2764 6. Alexander Grischuk 2761 7. Veselin Topalov 2752 8. Peter Svidler 2741 9. Boris Gelfand 2727 10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2726. As host, Kazakhstan had nominated Murtas Kazhgaleyev 2595 and Anuar Ismagambetov 2478 in rapid chess and Pavel Kotsur 2548 and Rinat Dzhumabayev 2556 in blitz. The final tournament consists of 16 players. Three other players will qualify for the respective Blitz or Rapid Finals from the Semi Finals to be held between the 1st and 4th July 2012. The nominee of the FIDE President is Ehsan Ghaem Maghami 2578 of Iran. The World Blitz Chess Championship time control for each player will be 3 minutes + 2 seconds additional time per move, starting from move 1. The Final Tournament will be played in two days as a double round robin event, 15 rounds per day (or 30 rounds in two days). Wesley vs Robson So achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess. Before becoming a grandmaster, So had become the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. He previously was the strongest Under-16 player in the world. So's current FIDE rating is 2653. Ray Robson in October 2009, about two weeks before turning 15, became the youngest grandmaster-elect in history who plays for the United States. Robson's norms were gained at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Norway, at the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Chicago, and at the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay. His rating as of July 2012 is 2601. He won the US Junior Chess Championship in 2009, becoming one of the youngest players ever to do so. The 18-year-old So will face-off against 17-year-old Ray Robson of Florida, in an online match that will test their ability to think quickly, and their endurance. “The match’s unique format gives the two prodigies three hours to complete as many games as possible, with time-controls for each game getting progressively shorter, from five minutes per side at the bout’s onset, down to just one minute during the final phase, all for a grand prize of $1000.” They will play on July 30, in a match that can be viewed online at Chess.com. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Carlsen wins Tal Memorial

Carlsen wins Tal Memorial The 7th Tal Memorial is a ten-player round robin event taking place from June 8-18 in Moscow, Russia. The players are Magnus Carlsen (2835,Norway),Levon Aronian (2825 ,Armenia),Vladimir Kramnik (2801,Russia),Teimour Radjabov(2784,Azerbaijan),Hikaru Nakamura(2775,USA),Fabiano Caruana(2770,Italy),Alexander Morozevich(2769,Russia) ,Alexander Grischuk (2761,Russia),Evgeny Tomashevsky (2738,Russia) and Luke McShane (2706,England) This is the strongest tournament of the year and 8 of the top 11 players of the world are competing. Time control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. Draw offers are not allowed until after the first time control. The prize fund is 100,000 Euros. After so many dramatic twists and turns, there were 5 different solo leaders which is probably a first in a 10 player GM round robin . This was Carlsen's tenth tournament in a row with a performance well above 2800. It pushes him to a new all-time rating high at 2837 on the July FIDE list. He did get a little help from Levon Aronian who won against Fabiano Caruana, the penultimate leader in the 8th round preventing the Italian star from achieving probably the biggest success of his career. Caruana needed only a draw in the last round to secure at least the shared first place and be declared the tournament winner on the account of first tie-break rule – the greater number of games played with black pieces. Both Carlsen and Radjabov, the only players in position to catch Caruana, had more games with white. Has such a winning streak above 2800 ever been recorded before? In the last two years and nine months Carlsen has won eleven tournaments: Nanjing 2009, London 2009, Wijk 2010, Bazna 2010, Nanjing 2010, London 2010, Bazna 2011, Biel 2011, Grand Slam final 2011, Tal Memorial 2011, Tal Memorial 2012. Deep Blue Here is our kiddie journalist,KC Morala,report: “Eden Diano and Ronald Ganzon finished in dead heat of 6pts in the 7-round DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM last June 16-17, 2012. Diano carried out an impressive show of ambushing his five remaining opponents after a disappointing loss on round 2 to Bonn Tibod. A better tiebreak score had Diano to be recognized as the tournament’s victor, having defeated Ronald Ganzon on 6th round. Meanwhile, 5.5-pointer Richard Natividad squashed Erwin Ababat to secure his post as solo 3rd placer. NM Merben Roque’s performance wasn’t as classic as the onlookers had hoped to be, but last month’s tournament champ managed to get himself a slot in a 5-way tie with Rommel Ganzon, Cyril Ortega, Felix Shaun Balbona and Alfer Fernandez for 4th to 8th places. Jessa Balbona soldiered on to nick the top lady player award as she outclassed Belinda Baguio on last round. The latter and Laila Nadera came second to Jessa Balbona. The rest of the top 14 consisted of those who managed to score 4.5 points, namely: Leonardo Alidani, Erwin Ababat, Carlos Moreno III, Venancio Loyola, Yuri Cauba, and Marq Balbona.” Cepca. Our monthly tournament for June will be held tomorrow Saturday SM City Deep Blue starting at 1pm. Format is 5 rounds Swiss with different time controls depending on the class of the player. Basic time control is 15 minutes . Cash prizes will be awarded to the top 5 players and the monthly winner will snare a trophy donated by our president ,Jojo Muralla. The top 2 finishers will qualify to the grand finals in December where the champion will take home a 5 ft signature trophy among other prizes. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com

Pestaño: Biggest comeback in poker history

By Frank 'Boy' Pestaño

Chessmoso 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

THE World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970.

The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. Over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants.

Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit hold’em “Main Event,” which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker.

This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito .

Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until Oct. 28.

It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes. Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated at 10th place.

The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in.

There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus’s 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament.

I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me.

Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1,200/2,400.

But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only five players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000!

If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history.

CHESS. Wesley So finished third in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had four wins and five draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents.

So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA.

GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title.

Deep Blue. Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15.

Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad but took home the trophy with a higher tiebreak score. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot.

The tournament, sponsored by Deep Blue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior player KC Morala, a chess player and contributing journalist.

Announcement. The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1 p.m. Format will be rapid and seven rounds Swiss. Registration is P150.

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