The Weekender Extra

Extra!!! The Chess Plaza Weekender
Friday, Dec. 7, 2007
Quezon Memorial Circle, Quezon City
Weekday Edition3RD PICHAY CUP INT’L OPEN

Torre outwits Gomez, faces Ni Hua for title

IN a fresh burst of energy, 56-year-old Eugenio Torre yesterday overcame a bad start and a series of setbacks to outsmart UAAP gold medalist John Paul Gomez and grab a last-minute chance to take the title in the final round of the US$30,000 Third Pichay Cup International Open.

Asia’s first grandmaster faces top seed Ni Hua of China at 2 p.m. today in a do-or-die showdown between two titans.

Torre must win his final match to capture the top prize—that is, if his compatriot, Mark Paragua, and Zhang Zhong of Singapore battle to a draw. Otherwise, even if he beats Ni, he must still win the plum on tiebreak over the winner of the Paragua-Zhang duel.

Quite a tall order, really, but still doable—if Lady Luck smiles at him from up there!

Chinese GM Ni needs only to draw his game to win the plum if Paragua and Zhang halve the point.

The four leaders enter the last round with the Chinese top seed in solo lead having 6.5 points while Torre, Paragua and Zhang are trailing behind by just half a point each.

Still in the race for runner-up positions are four other Filipinos, including 14-year- old GM-candidate Wesley So and two foreigners with 5.5 points apiece.

So, who needs only a draw to win his GM norm and title, faces Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. The two other pairs with a slim chance for the second to fifth prizes are FM Fernie Donguines vs. GM Rogelio Antonio Jr and Chinese GM Li Chao vs GM-candidate Jayson Gonzales.

Their chances for a share of the fat cash prizes depend, however, on their winning their last game as well as on Torre’s beating Ni and Paragua and Zhang.fighting to a draw.

A loss by Torre gives the title to Ni, whatever the results of the other matches.

Torre, who had been bugged by his first-round loss to untitled Chinese woman player Shen Siyuan, started his fantastic climb back to contention with a win against the event’s surprise giant-killer, David Elorte, in the seventh round.

According to journalist Ignacio Dee, quoting from chief arbiter Gene Poliarco, the untitled and unrated Elorte is in his mid-20s and is with the Guadalupe Chess Club in Makati, where he has gained the reputation as being “quick-thinking and quick-moving.”

One of his early victims in the Pichay Cup Open was IM Gonzales.

Two other giant-killers in this event, Singapore-based Filipino IM Julio Catalino Sadorra and NM Oliver Barbosa had difficulties after they had downed earlier on GMs Zhang and Ghaem Maghami, respectively.

Sadorra is in a batch of 11 aspirants with 5 points each and will face Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai, a former Asean zonal co-champion with his compatriot, GM Nguyen Anh Dung.

Barbosa has 4.5 points along with eight others, including two other former giant killers, NMs Hamed Nouri and Dino Ballecer.

Nouri, of Escalante City, shone in the First GMA Cup Open last year, while Ballecer had his moments of glory in the Second GMA Cup Open last month.

IM Gomez, a four-time national junior champion, was among the 5.0-pointers and would face Olympiad veteran NM Emmanuel Senador in the final round this afternoon.

In the Pichay Cup Challenge, Marlon Ricafort kept his solo leadership with a draw with Black against Noel de la Cruz in the penultimate eighth round yesterday.

Half a point behind Ricafort was early leader Joel Balquin, who also drew with Bengt Largo.

Ricafort faces Christian Arroyo while Balquin is to test Edmundo Gatus, a candidate master. Both leaders will be playing White.

Largo, Arroyo, Gatus, de la Cruz and Jerry Nodado have 6.0 points each.

My thanks to Patrick Lee of the NCFP secretariat and my apology to readers for the errors in the diagram on page 2 of the third extra edition.

5TH ROUND, WORLD CUP IN KHANTY-MANSYSKI
Shirov, Carlsen win first games

GLOBAL SUPERSTARS Alexei Shirov of Spain and 16-year-old Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen outsteadied Russian Grandmasters Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia and Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria, respectively, in their first games of the fifth round in the ongoing World Cup in the Russian resort of Khanty-Mansysk.

Two other pairs in the fifth round, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine vs Evgeny Alekseev of Russia, and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine and Gata Kamsky of the United States fought to two draws and had to go to rapid playoffs to determine the winners.

It took Shirov 43 moves of a Ruy Lopez to dispose of Jakovenko’s Marshall Attack while Carlsen, now the hottest sensation in the world, took 63 in a seesawing battle that saw the determined youngster win in a time scramble.

Shirov, Carlsen, Karjakin, Alekseev, Ponomariov and Kamsky are the latest survivors from an original batch of 128 players competing in the knockout series played under Standard time control (90 minutes per game per player with a time increment of 30 seconds per move).

In case of a tie, a rapid playoff with time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move will be played. If there is a tie after two games, a 5-minute blitz plus a 10-second increment per move will be played.

In case of a tie again, a sudden-death showdown with White having six minutes and Black five minutes will be played. If this ends in a draw, Black wins.

● M. Carlsen (2714) – I. Cheparinov (2670)
Rd. 5.1, World Cup, Khanty-Mansiysk RUS ’07
Torre, London & Colle (A48)

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bg5 Bg7 4.Nbd2 d6 5.e4 0–0 6.c3 c5 7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Bc4 Nc6 9.0–0 Qc7 10.Qe2 h6 11.Bh4 Nh5 12.Rfe1 Bg4 13.Qe3 g5 14.Bg3 Nxg3 15.hxg3 b6 16.Nh2 Bh5 17.g4 Bg6 18.g3 Rad8 19.f4 Nd4 20.Rac1 b5 21.Bf1 gxf4 22.gxf4 Ne6 23.e5 f5 24.exf6 Rxf6 25.f5 Ng5 26.fxg6 Re6 27.Qf2 Be5 28.Rxe5 Qxe5 29.Ndf3 Nxf3+ 30.Nxf3 Qf4 31.Re1 Rxe1 32.Nxe1 Not 32.Qxe1? Qxf3 33.Qe6+ Kh8 34.Qe5+ Qf6 35.Qxc5 a6! Qxf2+ 33.Kxf2 Rd2+ 34.Ke3 Rd1 35.Ke2 Ra1 36.Bg2 c4 36...Kg7 37.Bd5 should equalize 37.a3 Not 37.b4 Rxa2+ 38.Ke3 e5! Rb1 38.Be4 Rxb2+ 39.Nc2 Kg7 40.Ke3 Rb3 41.Kd2 Kf6 42.Nd4 Rxa3 43.Nxb5 Ra5 44.Nc7 Kg7 45.Ne6+ Kh8 46.Ke3 Ra1 47.Kd4 a5 48.Bc6 48.Kxc4 makes it even easier, says Fritz: 48...Re1 49.Nc5! a4 49.Be8 Missing his best shot, 49.Kxc4!? Re1 50.g7+! Rg1 50.g5 a3 51.Bf7 Not 51.gxh6?? because of 51...a2 52.g7+ Kg8 53.Bf7+ Kxf7! Rxg5 52.Nxg5 hxg5 53.Bxc4 Kg7 54.Kd3 Kxg6± 55.Kc2 g4 56.Kb3 Kf5 57.Kxa3 g3?? 58.Bf1?? Fritz suggests 58.Bd5.Kf4 59.Kb4! e5?? 58...Ke4 59.c4 Kd4 60.Kb4 should draw, says Fritz 59.Kb3 Kf4?? Releasing the pressure, says Fritz, suggesting 59...Ke4 instead for equality. 60.Bg2! Ke3 61.Kc4 Kf2 62.Be4! Black resigns: 62…Ke3 63.Kd5!, and wins. 1–0

Am off to the venue and try to watch that game between GM Torre and GM Ni Hua. And of course try to meet up in person Lilet!

Bye.