ShareThisLUBBOCK, Texas — The Philippines’ GM Wesley So agreed to a draw with top seed GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary and finished in a two-way tie for third to fourth places at the end of the 2010 SPICE (Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence) Group A tournament at the Texas Tech University here Monday.
So, who played white, and Almasi tried to outwit each other in a double-edged Four Knights Kingside Fianchetto variation of the English opening before sharing the point in 41 moves.
The 17-year-old Filipino champion, who is set to make his debut in the Asian Games chess competition in Guangzhou, China later this week, enjoyed a slight initiative against the higher-rated Almasi but could not exploit this advantage in the endgame.
When the game was drawn, both So and Almasi had a queen, same-colored bishop and three pawns each.
It was the second straight draw for So and Almasi, who also battled to a marathon, 105-move draw in their first meeting last week.
“It was a draw,” commented GM John Paul Gomez, a teammate of So in the coming Asian Games. “Wesley had a very slight edge that was, however, very difficult to exploit against a strong player like Almasi.
GM Alexander Onischuk of the United States outduelled GM Ray Robson in a decisive final-round encounter to capture the title for the second time in three years.
Onischuk, finished with a 10-round total of 18 points in this six-player, category 16 tournament which adopted the unique scoring system which gives three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss.
He finished a full point ahead of erstwhile leader GM Georg Meier, who was held to a draw by GM Eugene Perelshteyn of the United States.
Almasi and So shared third to fourth places with 14 points.
Almasi, the highest-rated player here with an ELO of 2707, edged So for third place overall with higher tiebreak score.
The fourth-place finish matched So’s result in the same tournament last year.
National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero Pichay congratulated So for his respectable showing in the tough, double-round tournament where he posted a winning record.
“It’s a good exposure for Wesley, especially with only a few days before the Asian Games in Guangzhou,” said Pichay, who is fully supporting So’s international campaign.
Overall, So finished with three wins, five draws and two losses in the annual tournament organized by former women’s world champion Susan Polgar.
So defeated Robson in their two meetings and Perelshteyn once.
He drew against Almasi twice and Onischuk, Meier and Perelshteyn once.
The two losses came at the hands of Meier in the fourth round and Onischuk in the sixth round.