Highlights of 2010

CHESSWISE, here are the important events of 2010.


World champion Viswanathan Anand defended his title against challenger Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria from April 24 to May 13. The prize fund was 2 million euros with 60 percent going to the winner. In a dramatic finish, Anand won the match 6½–5½.



Yifan Hou defeated teammate Ruan Lufei last December after four classical and four tiebreak games to be the youngest women’s world champion at 16. That match was held in Hatay, Turkey.


(The Chess Grand Slams are the Corus chess tournament, Linares, M-Tel Masters in Sofia, Pearl Spring in Nanjing ,Bilbao and the London Chess Classic).


Wijkaan Zee winner was Levon Aronian, Linares was snared by Anand and Sofia by Vassily Ivanchuk. Magnus Carlsen topped Pearl Spring and the London Chess Classic, while Vladimir Kramnik won in Bilbao.


Florencio Campomanes, the Grand Old Man not only of Philippine chess but of the world as well, was Fide president from 1982 to 95. He was Fide chairman from 1995 to 96 and honorary president until his death on May 3, 2010 at age 83.


Campo will always be remembered for turning Fide into a truly universal body ala United Nations.


The DNA test on Bobby Fischer remains proved negative when compared to Filipina Jinky Young, who claims to be his daughter.


Two men facing a trial for playing chess in a public park had their case dismissed on a technicality. The case attracted worldwide attention.


The World Chess Olympiad 2010, the largest national teams event with 150 men and 119 women, took place on Sept. 4 to Oct. 4 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.


Ukraine (GM Ivanchuk Vassily, GM Ponomariov Ruslan, GM Eljanov Pavel, GM Efimenko
Zahar, GM Moiseenko Alexander) won eight matches and allowed only three ties, to win the gold medal.


Russia 1 (GM Kramnik Vladimir, GM Grischuk Alexander, GM Svidler Peter, GM Karjakin Sergey, GM Malakhov Vladimir) claimed the silver medal.


Israel took the bronze medal .


In the women’s division, Russia 1 secured the gold medal. The team was composed of GM Kosintseva Tatiana, IM Kosintseva Nadezhda, GM Kosteniuk Alexandra, IM Galliamova Alisa and WGM Gunina Valentina


China snatched silver with GM Hou Yifan, WGM Ju Wenjun, GM Zhao Xue, WGM Huang Qian, IM Wang Yu.


Georgia beat took the bronze medal with a better tiebreak over six teams.


A total of 17 chess teams entered the competition in the men’s section and 12 in the women’s section in the Asian Games at the Guangzhou Chess Institute, China.


The gold medal for both men and women was won by China.


The players of Team Philippines surprised even themselves by winning the silver and Iran the bronze.


We performed better than India, our nemesis, the remarkable Vietnamese and the former Asian republics of the Soviet Union.


Wesley So, Joey Antonio, John Paul Gomez, Darwin laylo and Eugene Torre were the members of the team


Magnus Carlsen is officially the highest rated player at the end of the year with Elo 2814. Second is Anand with and not far behind is Aronian with Elo 2805.


The women’s division has three players with a rating of over 2600--Judit Polgar of Hungary ,who plays only with men, India’s Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan, who I expect will dominate women’s chess for a long time.


Wesley So continued his climb by being No. 3 among the world’s top junior players and no.64 in the world.


And lastly, sorely missed by the chess playing community is the late NM Matias ‘’ Bombi” Aznar III.


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


Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on January 07, 2011.