Wesley So Wins Quebec Chess Championship.

by:  joeyj   :   29  July 2012
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When it rains, it pours and that’s how to truly describe International Grandmaster Wesley So masterful invasion and back-to-back conquests of Toronto and Quebec Chess Championships in a matter of  14 non-stop days and a total of  16 gruelling rounds of exciting chess !!!

The Quebec Open Chess (QOC) Championship Invitational Section, was a 9-Rounds “Standard” Swiss that took place from 21st to 28th July, 2012, at the beautiful venue College Brebeuf in Montreal, Canada while the 2012 Toronto International Championship as previously reported, was a  7-Rounds “Standard” Swiss Event held on 15-20 July.

QOC,  a distinguished and most successful annual tournament in Canada invited and gathered for this year event  32 FIDE rated players (9-GMs, 10-IMs, 6-FMs & 1-WGM) from 9 countries (Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Lithuania, Philippines, South Africa, Ukraine & USA) for the ‘Invitational Section’  with a top prize of $4,000 for the first placer.

GM Wesley So, the Philippines top board player for the August 27 to September 10, 2012   World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey stamped his class, finishing sole 1st place  by scoring 7.5/9 (6Wins & 3Draws) and registering a performance rating of 2789.

Wesley, the 2nd seeded in the tourney had a ‘neck and neck’ battle for the lead with the nr-1 seed, the World’s 35th ranked GM Lázaro Bruzón Batista CUB(2711) i.e. as they approached round 9, the finish line, they were tied at 6.5/8 but GM Bruzon Batista had the upper-hand with a higher tiebreak points. One interesting to note was the top two seed players had a truce in round 4 where GM Wesley So had preserved his ‘No-Loss’ record  to-date against 2700+ players in ‘Standard ‘ chess (i.e. the players were officially @ 2700+ FIDE rating at the time when he played against them).    

In the last round, Hyper GM Lázaro Bruzón Batista  was held to a draw by Super GM Anton Kovalyov ARG(2614) while Super GM Wesley So defeated Canada’s Top Board player for the 2012 Olympiad GM Bator Sambuev in an exciting and suspenseful 75 chess moves to win the tournament by half point.

Here’s GM Wesley So’s round-by-round results:

R1:  21Jul :  GM Wesley So PHI(2650)  Vs  FM Jiang Louie CAN(2337) : 1-0
R2:  22Jul :  IM Naroditsky Daniel USA(2486) Vs GM Wesley So PHI(2650) :  0-1
R3:  22Jul :  GM Wesley So PHI(2650)  Vs  IM Yang Darwin USA(2498) : 1-0
R4:  23Jul :  GM Bruzon Batista Lazaro CUB(2711) vsGM So Wesley PHI(2650):½-½
R5:  24Jul :  GM Wesley So PHI(2650)  Vs  IM Smith Bryan USA(2441) : ½-½
R6:  25Jul :  GM Sumets Andrey  UKR(2618)  Vs GM So Wesley PHI(2650) :   ½-½
R7:  26Jul :  GM Wesley So PHI(2650)  Vs  GM Bojkov Dejan  BUL(2556) :  1-0
R8:  27Jul:   IM Gerzhoy Leonid  CAN(2459) Vs GM Wesley So PHI(2650) : 0-1
R9:  28Jul:  GM Wesley So PHI(2650) Vs  GM Sambuev Bator CAN(2542) : 1-0

Total Points/Nr-Of-Rnds: 7.5/9

GM Wesley So next stop will be the Chess.com’s 7th Blitz “Match of Death” that will take place on Sunday, July 29th at 3pm Pacific (6pm Eastern) time. The match is set to feature the highest rated player in Filipino history, Grandmaster Wesley So, against the youngest Grandmaster in American history, Ray Robson.

2012 Quebec Open Chess Championship Final Standing (Top 20)

reference:    http://chess-results.com/tnr77523.aspx?art=1&rd=9&lan=1&fed=PHI