MANILA, Philippines - Grandmaster Wesley So overcame jitters and brought down GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan in a grand debut in the World Chess Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk Center of Arts in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia Sunday.
The 15-year-old So, seeded 59th in the128-player field with a 2640 rating, played almost flawlessly with the white pieces to trample Guseinov and move within a draw of advancing to the next round.
Guseinov, seeded No. 70, is one of 46 players who earned a ticket to the World Cup through the European Championships.
But while So made his mark on his first stint in an event of this magnitude, fellow RP GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Darwin Laylo dropped their opening round games.
Antonio lost to defending champion and No. 27 seed GM Gata Kamsky of the US while Laylo bowed to No. 21 seed GM David Navara of Czech Republic.
Antonio and Laylo need to win the second game to force a pair of knockout matches.
Top seed GM Boris Gelfand of Israel also opened his campaign with a victory over IM Andrei Obodchuk of Russia.
Second seed GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan defeated IM Walaa Sarwat of Egypt while No. 3 GM Peter Svidler of Russia whipped IM Jean Hebert of Canada.
Other first-round winners were No. 4 GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia over IM Khaled Abdel Rzik of Egypt; No. 5 GM Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan over IM Mohamed Ezat of Egypt, No. 6 GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine over GM Alexei Bezgrodov of Russia; No. 9 GM Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia over GM Aimen Rizouk of Algeria and No. 10 GM Wang Yue of China over GM Nikolai Kabanov of Russia.