I Love Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So defended his individual title in Board 1 at the 2008 World Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Mersin, Turkey.

The win was a consolation of sorts for Team Philippines after the four-man squad finished third after 10 rounds at the Mersin Great Municipality Sport Hotel.

So, 14, did not lose a game tallying nine points behind eight wins and two draws to bag his second consecutive gold in the annual tournament. He won the gold in 2007 in his second junior chess Olympiad when the Philippines placed third in Singapore.

So, the highest-rated player in the tournament with an ELO of 2577, was forced to a draw by Nasir Ekin Zeytinoglu in the Philippines’ 3-1 win over host Turkey in Sunday’s 10th round.

Eltaj Safarli of Armenia and Russia’s Aleksandr Shimanov placed second and third in Board 1.

Other Philippine campaigners are National Master Haridas Pascua (Board 2), John Alcon Datu (Board 3) and Jan Emmanuel Garcia (Board 4).

Pascua ended up tied for sixth in Board 2 with Burak Firat of Turkey-A and Jonathan Rosenthal of Switzerland A with 5.5 points each while Datu and Garcia had 5.5 and 7.0 points at boards three and four.