Wesley So on his way to victory at "Battle of GMs"

Wesley So is well on his way to tournament victory at the Phoenix Petroleum & Dapitan City "Battle of Grandmasters", or in other words: the Philippine Championship. The 15-year-old is 1.5 point clear of GMs Antonio and Torre. But... his draw against Antonio was nullified and has to be replayed.

The Phoenix Petroleum & Dapitan City "Battle of Grandmasters" takes place March 24-31 in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte, south of the Philippines. The prize fund is P850,000 (about 13,280 Euros).

It's a 12-player round-robin consisting of 8 GMs and 4 IMs, including the legendary Eugenio Torre who had a big succes in September last year when he won the 3rd President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) Cup.

15-year-old GM Wesley So, who won the prestigeous Corus Grandmaster Group C this year, is leading the field half a point clear of GMs Antonio and Torre at the Battle of GMs after ten of the eleven rounds.

[TABLE=686]

But... something's wrong with this table. What is it? Well, the result between Antonio and So has not been entered. In fact, the two had played a 22-move draw in round 6 but this result was nullified as games apparently need to last at least 30 moves at this tournament, As reported by Chessdom, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its President Prospero Pichay decided the results should not stand and the game has to be replayed.

Apparently there are more specific rules being applied at this tournament but unfortunately we haven't been able to find a tournament website. And so we have to end with the famous "to be continued..."

Games of Wesley So round 1-5

Somehow So's play reminds of Fischer's style: logical, clean and deceptively simple. Another similarity with the former American prodigy and world champion is that at 15, So doesn't mind at all entering the endgame. It's still amazing when you realize that the young Philippine never really had a coach and just learnt chess by using the computer.