THE World Cup, an integral part of the World Championship Cycle 2014-2016, is currently on-going in Baku, Azerbaijan and is now in the quarterfinal stage.
The format is six rounds of matches comprising two games per round plus tiebreaks, with the winners progressing to the next round and the final seventh round will have four (4) games.
This is a an extremely strong tournament as of the top 100 players, only Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand are absent.
Wesley So is out of the competition after being booted out by his nemesis Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the rapid tiebreaks in the Round-of-16. Although rated lower than Wesley, Maxime has won two of their classical games with seven draws. Wesley goes home though with $25,000.
Also out are top 10 players and Sinquefield 2014 and 2015 winners Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, perennial candidates qualifier Boris Gelfand, previous World Cup winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Veselin Topalov and Ding Liren.
Those who made the quarterfinalists are Anish Giri, Pavel Eljanov, Sergey Karyakin, Wei Yi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hikaru Nakamura, Peter Svidler and Lagrave.
The losers in the quarterfinals will receive $35,000, while those who make the semis get $50,000. The runner-up gets $80,000 while the champion gets $120,000. In major tournaments Fide usually gets 20 percent of the prize money. In this case however, the organizers have been generous by assuming the Fide tax and the players will receive the full amount.
Round 5 pairings are Giri vs. Lagrave; Mamedyarov vs. Karjakin; Nakamura vs. Eljanov; and Svidler vs. Wei Yi. Incidentally, Chinese sensation Wei is the youngest player ever to reach the quarterfinal stage.
Cepca. Rommel Ganzon was crowned king of the recently concluded Cepca Silver Open tournament at SM City, while Felix Shaun Balbona was a close runner-up with the same score but lower tiebreak points.
For his feat, Ganzon earned P10,000, a beautiful championship trophy and a DGT chess clock from Boojie Lim of Rose Pharmacy. Balbona received P7,000, a runner-up trophy and a brand new chess clock from Raymond Garcia, the club’s guest of honor. All other winners, up to the 20th placer, received cash prizes as well.
Other special winners are: Top Cepca A--Arnold Cadiz, Jimmy Ty Jr., Ross Yamyamin; Top Cepca B--Gabby Misterio, Mario Bustillo, Romy Pialan; Top Ladies--Charry Jacobs, KC Morala, Belinda Baguio; Top Kiddies--Jeremy Pepito, Jerish Velarde, Marc Bryan Villarojo; and Top Senior--Jun Kidlat.
The club, through president Engr. Jerryboy Maratas, is very thankful to all the sponsors and donors for the successful holding of the tournament.
Thank you so much to the following major sponsors—Jemar Engineering Services, Celgem Construction and Development Corp., Handuraw Pizza, SM City-Cebu. The minor sponsors are Prime Parts Fabricators and Development Corp. and San Narciso Builders Corp.
The donors are Rose Pharmacy, Model Rent-A-Car, Ecotherm Water Heater Co., Gonzalodo Enterprises, JJ & J Construction and General Supply, Biao Builders, Ritebuild System Corp., Reliabuild Corp., Federal North Hardware, Inc., Steeltech Colored Roofing, MGM Financial Services, Heinar Traders Corp., Kawashima and Dalawampu Families, Rhaffy Bensi, SSGT Amado A Jr Olea, Capt. Mercurion Fernandez, Engr. Marvyne Guardiana and Mayor Aljun Diamante.
Also personal contributions were received from Rosendo Yamyamin, Silverstein Torres, Felix Balbona, Denster Abella, Ben Dimaano and Elmer Odango. Special thanks to honorary members Kelly Uy and Andrew Aznar for the trophies; honorary member Boojie Lim and Raymond Garcia for the chess clocks.
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