GM Wesley So played with the white pieces in his thirteenth and final round game against WGM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the Corus B Tournament in Holland. The Filipino prodigy opened with 1.d4 and Muzychuk responded with the Nimzoindian defense.
Muzychuk?s games database in the website chessgames.com shows that in her games as black against d4 she uses the Dutch defense or a Queens pawn game.
She sacrificed a pawn on her 15th move for open files and piece activity. So castled on his queenside on his 20th move. Muzychuk lined up her rooks on the open b file targeting the Filipino?s king.
She sacrificed another pawn on her 28th move to deflect So?s pieces away from defending the b-file and the king. With the Slovenian getting good counterplay and attacking chances, So decided to go for perpetual check and the game ended in a draw after 38 moves.
The 19 year old Muzychuk was born in the Ukraine and is currently living in Slovenia where she has been a member of their women?s team to the Chess Olympiad. She earned the Women?s Grandmaster title in 2004. In 2005 she won the Girl?s Under-16 world championship and in 2007 she won the European Women?s Blitz championship.
The 16 year old So won Corus C last year. For this Corus B tournament he won three games against Tomi Nyback, Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu and Dimitri Reinderman. He suffered a loss against Anish Giri of Holland in an important 11th round game that cost So his chances of winning the tournament. So also nine draws for a total of 7.5 points.
So was 5th in this 14 player field going into Sunday?s final round. Giri won the tournament after drawing his last round game and wound up with 9 points. Other players were still playing as of this writing. Whatever So?s final placing in this tournament will be, he already did the country proud once again and we expect him to bounce back in subsequent international outings.
Wesley So is the youngest Filipino to earn the international master and grandmaster title. His recent exploits especially during the last Chess World Cup woke Pinoy chess fans from their slumber.
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