FILIPINO GM Wesley So made the country proud anew as he shared top honors with two others at the conclusion of the 28th Reykjavik Open chess championship Wednesday night at the Harpa Concert Hall in Iceland.
The 19-year-old native of Bacoor, Cavite made a quick draw against GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine using the disadvantageous black pieces in just three moves of Gruenfeld defense.
He finished with an unbeaten record of 8.0 points on six wins and four draws at the end of the ten round Swiss-system tournament, which attracted 227 players from around the world.
So finished tied on top with Eljanov and GM Bassem Amin of Egypt, who toppled GM Grzegorz Gajewski of Poland in 52 moves of a Sicilian.
Eljanov however, notched first place after the tiebreak, followed by So and Amin. The Ukrainian GM also received the bigger share of the total prize 8,250 Euros which he shared with So and Amin.
Eljanov was quoted in the official website of the tournament that he was planning to “play a little,” but when his opponent (So) offered the draw, he saw no reason to decline.
The tournament serves as part of Wesley’s build up for the World Chess Cup scheduled on August 10 to September 5 in Tromso, Norway where he will be joined by fellow Filipino GM Oliver Barbosa.
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