A very big win by Wesley So
79th Tata Steel Group “A” Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands Jan. 14-29, 2017
1. Wesley So USA 2808, 9.0/13 2. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2840, 8.0/13 3- 5. Baskaran Adhiban IND 2653, Levon Aronian ARM 2780, Wei Yi CHN 2706, 7.5/13
6-7. Sergey Karjakin RUS 2785, Pavel Eljanov UKR 2755, 7.0/13 8. Anish Giri NED 2773, 6.5/13 9-11. Penteala Harikrishna IND 2766, Dmitry Andreikin RUS 2736, Radoslaw Wojtaszek POL 2750, 6.0/13
12. Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS 2767, 5.0/13
13. Richard Rapport HUN 2702, 4.5/13 14. Loek Van Wely NED 2695, 3.5/13 Average Rating: 2751 Category 21 Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes play to finish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1.
Mr. Eliseo Tumbaga has written a very nice piece on Wesley So in his Facebook on Chess News and Views. He believes that it might mean a lot to Wesley’s fans to know what’s happening in the background, the many things that people never see while watching the battles over the board. I cannot agree more and, with Mr. Tumbaga’s kind permission, am sharing this article with our readers.
The hours after Wesley So ended a successful campaign at the Tata Steel Masters super-tournament have been a very emotional time for the Kabigting family.
Renato “Bambi” Kabigting had prayed very hard for victory so that Wesley’s photo could be placed in the gallery of champions in the hallway of the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, the venue of the annual festival that has become known as the Wimbledon of chess.
Every classical world champion since Max Euwe of the Netherlands has played in this event, except the American genius Bobby Fischer.
The current world champion, Magnus Carlsen of Norway, shared the title in 2008 with Armenia’s Levon Aronian, then won alone in 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2016.
The previous world champion, India’s Viswanathan Anand, also won five titles though three of them were shared. He was sole winner in 2003 and 2004 and shared the titles in 1989 ( with Predrag Nikolic, Zoltan Ribli, and Gyula Sax), in 1998 with another world champion ( Vladimir Kramnik), and in 2006 with still another world champion ( Veselin Topalov).
Garry Kasparov was victorious for three straight years — in 1999, 2000, and 2001. On Jan. 20, 1999, he played one of the greatest games of all time — against Topalov — which he considers as one of the three best games that he has ever played.
Kasparov’s predecessor and fierce rival, Anatoly Karpov, won at Wijk aan Zee in 1988 and 1993.
Boris Spassky won in 1967 while Mikhail Tal did the same in 1973.
Tigran Petrosian shared the title with Bent Larsen in 1960 while Mikhail Botvinnik shared the honors with Efim Geller in 1969.
Among all the world champions who played there, only Vassily Smyslov did not win a title.
Other legends of the game — such as Paul Keres and Viktor Korchnoi, among many others — also competed in Wijk aan Zee and brought home the champion’s crown.
Next year, when the Kabigtings return to Wijk aan Zee, Wesley’s photo will be displayed at De Moriaan together with those of the greatest players of all time.
“It is so overwhelming,” Lotis KeyKabigting told me just hours ago. “When you enter the hallway, you pass the photos of all those who have won before. Now Bambi’s prayer has been answered and next year we will walk past Wesley’s portrait.”
The Kabigtings have been Wesley’s family since 2014 and he has lived with them in Minnetonka, an upscale suburb of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, MinneapolisSt. Paul, in the Midwest region of the United States.
Bambi, a former basketball star in the Philippines, has taken in Wesley like his own son. As Wesley’s foster father, he has been a source of strength for a young man who has been trying to find his way in the competitive and sometimes treacherous world of professional chess.
His wife Lotis, a former movie actress in the Philippines and a well-regarded writer in the US with awards to her name, is Wesley’s foster mother.
She has given up any semblance of a professional career to accompany Wesley to all his tournaments, help him with travel arrangements and dealing with tournament organizers around the world, and doing everything else necessary to make Wesley’s quest to be world champion within the range of possibilities in the near future.
The past six months have clearly indicated that the dream is within reach.
Wesley has won the three strongest tournaments in the world during the past six months — the Sinquefield Cup in August, the London Chess Classic in December, and now Tata Steel —and has not lost any of his last 56 games.
He is currently ranked #2 in the live ratings, just 16 points behind Carlsen, and will be officially #3 in the world, behind Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, when FIDE ratings are released on Feb. 1.
The top two players by average rating will advance to the Candidates Tournament next year that will select the next challenger for the world championship.
Wesley So is well positioned to be one of those candidates, especially with the help of the Ukrainian grandmaster and veteran coach Vladimir Tukmakov, whom he has enlisted as a coach.
It is not too hard to imagine what Bambi Kabigting’s prayers will be when the time comes.
Here is the final round game of Wesley. Everybody expected a quick draw but Nepo attacked unsoundly and got rolled back fast.
Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2767) — So, Wesley (2808) [D00] 79th Tata Steel GpA Wijk aan Zee (13.2), 29.01.2017 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 d5 3.Nd2
There are four alternatives which are far more common here: 3.Nc3, 3.Bxf6, 3.Nf3 and 3.e3.
3...c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.e4 h6
Wesley took 10 minutes calculating 5...Bxc5 6.e5 Qb6 7.exf6 Bxf2+ 8.Ke2 Bxg1 (GM Daniel King remarked that 8...e5! would be very strong here) 9.Rxg1 Qxg1 10.fxg7 Rg8 11.Ne4! but in this case Nepo would have gotten exactly the type of position he thrives in — take note that the knight cannot be captured because of Qd8 checkmate. Wesley decides to avoid complications and continue playing simply.
Another thing. 5... dxe4?! is not so good because 6.Nxe4 Qa5+ 7.Bd2 Qc7 8.Nxf6+ gxf6 9.Qf3 Nd7 10.Bc3 White has pressure. This explains the text move. More on this later.
6.Bh4 dxe4
Now you see the point of 5…h6. With h6 and Bh4 inserted this is now a good move as after 6...dxe4 7.Nxe4 Qa5+ the white bishop can no longer go to d2 and after 8.Qd2 Qxd2+ 9.Nxd2 Bxc5 the position is dead equal.
7.Qe2 Qa5 8.0–0–0?!
Played after 30 minutes’ thought. Many commentators wrote here that 8.c3 is a more “normal” move but I do not think normal is what Nepo wants!
8...Qxa2 9.Qb5+? Nbd7
The best move, targeting c5 so he can follow-0up with Bxc5 and 0–0. 10.c6
After another 30 minutes.
10...bxc6 11.Qxc6 <D> 11...Bb7!
Obviously overlooked by White.
12.Qxb7 Qa1+ 13.Nb1 Rb8 14.Qxb8+
[14.Qc6 Qxb2+ 15.Kd2 Bb4+ followed by 0–0 and Rfc8]
14...Nxb8 15.Bb5+ Nfd7 16.Ne2 Be7 17.Bxe7 Kxe7 18.Nd4
White is digging deep from his bag of tricks. If Black is not careful then Nb3, Qa2, Nc3 traps the queen.
18...Nc5 19.h4 Rd8 20.Rh3
And now Ra3 once again traps the queen.
20...Nd3+
But Wesley is ready for it.
21.Bxd3 Rxd4 22.Be2 Rxd1+ 23.Bxd1 Qa5 24.Nd2 f5 25.Rg3 Qe5 26.Ra3 Nc6 27.g3 Qd4 28.Re3 Nb4 0–1
There is no more hope for White. Black will follow-up with Nd5, Re1 and Qxf2.
It turned out later that a draw would have been enough for solo first, but this win, together with a Fabiano Caruana loss in the Gibraltar Open, was what catapulted Wesley to 2nd in the world rating list.
I almost regret that the tournament is over — had gotten used to losing sleep in order to follow the games in Wijk aan Zee live. What on earth am I going to do with all this time now?