And a REAL Pinoy Superstar

In the "Pinoy Superstar" post below I was kidding a little bit. Rolando's extraordinary string of wins in last week's Allegro Tournament may well have given him a SwissPerfect performance rating of 2700+ for the night but FIDE will never wear it.

On the other hand everybody's sitting up and taking notice of young Wesley So, the new wunderkind from the Philippines.

There's a story about Wesley on the Rooty Hill web page http://www.rootyhillchess.org/so.html in response to a request from Leo Tenorio. Since it was posted I've had a couple of emails from Wesley's mother, Eleanor, with lots more information.

Her latest was a copy of Olimpiu G. Urcan's interview with Wesley which is now published there with permission of Intchess Magazine (published by ASEAN Chess Academy, one of only two FIDE-accredited chess academies in the world).

If you're interested in chess in the Philippines, or if you just want a glimpse of one of Caissa's rising new stars, go read the story.

Western Suburbs Chess Premiership

It's almost time for the WSCP and our teams need to be entered within the next week or two.

Only a handful of people have nominated so far. Please let Peter know if you are going to play.

Pinoy Superstar

Did you know that if your chess rating is over 2700 and you can put up a $US2million guarantee, you have the right to challenge the World Champion to a title match?

That's the case, and I'm pleased to say that we have somebody in the club who's half-way qualified to do that. No, it's not Gary Lane, and it's not Tony Bouchaaya. It's Rolando Gonzales!

Last Monday night in the weekly Allegro Tournament, Rolando won 6/6 beating such worthy opponents as Leo Tenorio, Levi Descallar, Noel Mangrobang, Peter Cassettari (I think), myself, and one other. It gave him a performance rating on the night of around 2750!

Nice one, Rolando.

Now, if you can get FIDE to ratify that score, and if you can find the $2mill, you can go knocking on Mr Kramnik's door.

(Of course, you might have to do a bit of shoving to get Veselin Topalov's manager, Silvio Danailov, out of the way. He's been knocking there for a couple of months now, but Vlad won't let him come in.)