Friday, January 24, 2014

So rebounds, outplays Dutch in Tata Steel Masters


MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley So outplayed Dutch Loek Van Wely in a furious time scramble and eked out a 41-move victory in their Classical King's Indian duel to get back on track after nine rounds of the 2014 Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands Thursday night.
So, 20, sacrificed a rook for Van Wely's dangerous knight to slow down the latter's kingside attack while fast-tracking his onslaught on the queenside, setting the stage for a nerve-wracking battle against the clock.
Instead of pursuing a complex tactical duel, So opted to simply trade queens, leaving him with a three-pawn battering ram in the queenside while rending Van Wely's rook inutile against the former's active bishop.
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Thursday, January 2, 2014

FIBA: Phl among biggest revelations in 2013


MANILA, Philippines – The world basketball circle believes the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and Ukraine still have bright future ahead of them after making rousing runs in their respective FIBA zones in 2013 and thus becoming surprise entrants in the 2014 FIBA World Cup set Aug. 30 to Sept. 14 in six cities in Spain.

In welcoming the new year, the FIBA, through its website www.fiba.com, looked back at the 2013 FIBA zone championships and hailed the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and Ukraine as the “surprise packages” gate-crashing the Spain party.

They noted not many people predicted before the summer's qualifying events that the four would make it to the sport's biggest event, but they did.

FIBA: Phl among biggest revelations in 2013


MANILA, Philippines – The world basketball circle believes the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and Ukraine still have bright future ahead of them after making rousing runs in their respective FIBA zones in 2013 and thus becoming surprise entrants in the 2014 FIBA World Cup set Aug. 30 to Sept. 14 in six cities in Spain.

In welcoming the new year, the FIBA, through its website www.fiba.com, looked back at the 2013 FIBA zone championships and hailed the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico and Ukraine as the “surprise packages” gate-crashing the Spain party.

They noted not many people predicted before the summer's qualifying events that the four would make it to the sport's biggest event, but they did.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Gilas coach Chot Reyes is Spin.ph's Sportsman of the Year


CHOT Reyes stalked the 18th green of Wack Wack’s West course, carefully reading the speed and every single break in his line of putt as meticulously as he broke down opponent’s plays from stacks of game tape in his hotel war room during the last Fiba-Asia men’s basketball championships.
The golf round – which he ended with a putt that slipped by the cup and a routine tap-in for par – was Reyes’ first in close to three months, and represented a return to normalcy in his life after what had been a crazy two weeks that changed his life, perhaps forever.
“Ngayon nga lang ako nakalaro uli,” said the Gilas Pilipinas coach two days after the Fiba-Asia showpiece, not necessarily complaining but thankful to go back to his daily routine and finally have the time to enjoy golf which happens to be one of his three biggest passions in life – basketball and fashion being the other two.

So continues rise in FIDE ratings


MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Wesley continued to move up the ladder as he zoomed two rungs up the FIDE rankings released recently.
From No. 30 in the world in December, the 20-year-old So, who had five tournament victories last year including the Universiade in Kazan, Russia, leapt to No. 28 although his rating remained at 2719.
It did not count his perfect six-of-six performance in the just concluded 2013 Pan American Inter-Collegiate Championship in Lubbock, Texas, where So powered Webster U to an impressive title sweep and emerged as the best individual performer of the strongest collegiate tournament in the Americas.