Gold for Wesley So at Universiade, the Olympic Games for Students

Wesley So clinched the gold medal at the 27th Universiade, also known as the World University Games or Olympics for students. The 19-year-old grandmaster from the Philippines, who studies at Webster University as part of Susan Polgar's Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE), beat GM Zaven Andriasian of Armenia in a playoff. The event is still under way in Kazan, Russia but the chess part is over.

You might have never heard of it, but it's quite a big and prestigious event held every two years: the Universiade. It is, according to Wikipedia,

an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a combination of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is often referred to in English as the World University Games or World Student Games; however, this latter term can also refer to competitions for sub-University grades students, as well.

Universiades have been organized since 1923 and like the Olympic Games, there is both a Summer Universiade and a Winter Universiade.

The 27th edition of the Summer Universiade is taking place July 6th-17th in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. (In the same city the Candidates Matches were held in 2011, won by Boris Gelfand.) There are 27 disciplines: athletics, basketball, fencing, football, artistic gymnastics, judo, swimming, diving, water polo, table tennis, tennis volleyball, boxing, shooting, synchronous swimming, rowing, canoe sprint, sambo, wrestling, belt wrestling, weightlifting, rugby 7, field hockey, badminton, beach volleyball and... chess! The royal game debuted at the previous Summer Universiade, in 2011 in Shenzhen, China.

At the time of writing the event is coming to its end, and the athletes have finished their competitions for most of the sports, including chess. It was a 9-round Swiss tournament for both men and women, who played in separate groups, from July 9th-15th. Each country could send a maximum of eight competitors to Kazan, and all of them had to be studying at a university, of course. There was also an age limit: the athletes needed to be between 17 and 28 years old.

The men's group ended in a nine-way tie for first place between Wesley So (Philippines), Zaven Andriasian (Armenia), Li Chao (China), Ma Qun (China), Maxim Matlakov (Russia), Zhou Jiangchao (China), Evgeny Alekseev (Russia), Jacek Tomczak (Poland) and Sanan Sjugirov (Russia). The tiebreaks (Buchholz and Sonneborn-Berger) put So, Andriasian and Li Chao on top.

Universiade 2013 | Final standings (top 30)

However, because So and Andriasian had exactly the same values for all tiebreaks that were applied, the question was: who would get gold and who silver? The arbiters decided on a playoff consisting of just one Armageddon game. Andriasian won the toss and chose the white pieces, and So got Black with less time on the clock and draw odds. This very tense game ended in favour of the Webster freshman:

In the women's section all three medals went to China. The only grandmaster in the field, Zhao Xue, clinched the gold medal after finishing clear first with 7.5/9. Ju Wenjun won silver and Tan Zhongyi bronze; these two players finished on 7/9.

Universiade 2013 Women | Final standings (top 30)

All photos courtesy of the Universiade