So, Nolte tow winners in Campo Cup

MANILA, Philippines - Top RP bet Wesley So picked up his second straight win while International Masters Rolando Nolte and Barlo Nadera sprang a pair of surprises over their respective fancied rivals to grab a share of the lead after two rounds of play in the first Florencio Campomanes Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium yesterday.

Pouncing on the opening mistake by fellow GM Darwin Laylo, So emerged with a pawn advantage which he translated into a 47-move victory in a tense two-bishop endgame of a Gruenfeld.

“He (Laylo) made an opening mistake,” said So, tipped to man board one for Team RP in the 39th World Chess Olympiad slated Sept. 21-Oct. 3 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

But while So provided the expected surge by the local bets in the early going of the tournament put up by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and held in memory of former FIDE chief Florencio Campomanes, Nolte and Nadera delivered the surprise wins.

Nolte outwitted newly crowned Pichay Cup champion GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan in their Sicilian encounter, coming up with a mating threat that the latter had no answer for. Filippov resigned after 48 moves.

Nadera, meanwhile, came through with an endgame brilliance to destroy Georgian Tamaz Gelashvili’s Nimzo-Indian defense and beat last week’s Pichay Cup’s joint runner-up in a positional duel that lasted 71 moves.

Nolte and Nadera thus joined the second-seeded So and other favorites – No. 3 Zhou Jianchao, No. 4 Ni Hua and No. 6 Li Chao of China, No. 7 Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan, No. 10 Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, No. 11 Zhao Jun of China, No. 12 Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and No.14 Ding Liren of China – in the lead with two points.

Zhou defeated Kivanc Haznedaroglu of Turkey in 35 moves of a Sicilian Pelican; Ni downed Filipino IM Ronald Dableo’s French Defense (46 moves), Li beat compatriot IM Yu Lie (35, Slav), Kazghaleyev trampled RP’s GM Jayson Gonzales (37, Caro-Kann Defense), Gagunashvili whipped Indonesian IM Sadikin Irwanto’s (25, Slav Defense), Zhao bucked a two-pawn disadvantage and turned back a time-troubled Emmanuel Senador in (62, Sicilian), Ghaem Maghami trounced RP’s IM Kim Steven Yap (Pirc game) and Ding smothered Noel dela Cruz (39, Gruenfeld).