MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So ended his roller-coaster ride in the Corus Chess 2009 emerging on top of Group C at the of the 13-round tournament at the the De Moriaan Community Centre in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands.

A final-round draw against second seed David Howell of England on Monday gave So 9.5 points, a full-point ahead of Sweden’s Tiger Hillarp Persson and Anish Giri of Russia.

An eighth-round loss to GM Frank Holzke of Germany nearly cost So the title but put up a solid game by stringing up four straight wins before halving the point with Howell.

The 15-year-old pride of Cavite, who is also the defending Dubai Open champion, was already the virtual champion after defeating erstwhile leader GM Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden in the 12th and penultimate round.

Hillarp eventually finished tied for second spot with GM-elect Giri.

Overall, So finished with seven wins, five draws and a defeat in the annual tournament.

“Masayang-masaya po ako sa panalo kong ito ngayong bagong taon,” said So, who also thanked his parents William and Leny for their continued support.

So opened the tournament with a win over GM Friso Nijober of the Netherlands then drew with No.7 GM Oleg Romanishin of Ukraine, No.11 FM Anish Giri of Russia and No.4 GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in the second, third and fourth rounds.

He scored consecutive wins in the fifth and sixth rounds beating No.8 GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela and No.6 GM Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico, respectively.

So then drew with WGM Dronavaili Harika of India in the seventh round with his lone loss coming from Holzke in the eighth. He closed out the tournament with four straight wins before halving the point with Howell in the last round.

In Group A, GM Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine bagged the top honor while Italian-American GM Fabiano Caruana pocketed the Group B crown. GMANews.tv

Tags: Young Achievers