Showing nerves of steel and displaying how good he is, 16 year old Filipino Wesley So struck again in the FIDE World Chess Cup which is taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia outplaying Gata Kamsky with the black pieces in his third round match.
Chessbase News reported that So who turned 16 just seven weeks ago is a grandmaster and “apparently a Super GM killer.”
The report said that in round two So knocked out Vassily Ivancuk and in the first game of round three he outplayed Kamsky in the FIDE World Chess Cup which is a seven-round knockout event with six rounds of matches comprising two games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round.
The final seventh round consists of four games. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move from move one.
In an interview by FIDE, So said he was honestly lucky when playing against Ivanchuk saying “ I admire this chess player and I know that he plays much far better than me. In first game he was in time trouble and maybe that is why I was lucky. The second game was a draw, but Vassily had a real chance to win at some point during the game.”
Although So conceded he didn’t play well against Ivanchuk he said “ today I played very well against Gata Kamsky. I was preparing for the game. I caught him at the opening and he spent a lot of time. I just hope that tomorrow I will be also lucky. I realize that you should do your best in the classical games of each round. If you win one game, you are almost there.”
So revealed that he spends spend a lot of time for preparations for every single opponent adding, “. I train for 5-6 hours per day, looking at the previous games of my opponents. I understand that they are people who can also make mistakes. Generally speaking, I am okay if the classical games were drawn. To my mind I play tie breaks better than classical games. But my opponents did not give me any chance to come to the tie breaks.”
Asked about himself and his achievements in chess, the giant killer said “ the greatest achievement for me so far is the second place in a tournament with average rating about 2700. At the moment my rating is 2640. I dream that sooner or later I will come to the magical point 2700. I don’t know how much time I will need for that.”
So also squelched rumors that he would not compete in the World Junior Chess Championship saying “It could be stupid of me to think that due to my performance here I became a big shot. In fact to win the World Junior U-20 Championship is my nearest aim in chess. It will be a tough competition. Some of the potential participants of the Championship are here: Negi Parimarjan, Hou Yifan, Sanan Syugirov. I am trying to follow their games here, their openings most of all.” Asked by the FIDE interviewer ro define his chess style So replied, “ So far I play aggressively. I would like to play a solid game with a solid opening. This is what I want. I think my style is close to Vishy Anand. Of course we have different level.’
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