Wesley So with 2826 performance in Cuba

The 49th Capablanca Memorial took place from May 8th to 18th, 2014, in the Hotel Habana Riviera, Havana, Cuba. The Elite group had six players with an average rating of 2721 (= Category 19). The tournament was a double round robin with international FIDE time controls: 90 minutes for 40 moves and 30 minutes to finish, plus 30 bonus seconds from the first move.

The winner of the tournament was Filipino GM Wesley So, who like Cuban GM Lazaro Bruzon remained undefeated but won three games, as opposed to Bruzon's one. So's performance: a remarkable 2826, which adds thirteen points to his current 2731 rating.

In 2008 Wesley was the the seventh youngest player in history to receive a GM title. Our picture was
included in a portrait on Wesley written just after he had won the 10th Dubai Open Chess Championship.

Wesley So is all of 20 years old. He became the youngest Filipino International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months and received his GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the eighth youngest chess grandmaster in history. He was the strongest Under-16 player in the world. In October 2008, So was rated 2610 and thus became the youngest player ever in the history of the game to cross the 2600 Elo barrier, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen (the record has subsequently been broken by Chinese GM Wei Yi). In the May 2014 rankings So is number 23 in the world, the Capablanca Memorial will lift him to number 15.

Final standings of the Elite (after ten rounds)

Lazaro Bruzon can also be satisfied with his "comeback". He gained twelve Elo points with his 2763 performance.

Top seed Leinier Dominguez Perez, who but for José Raúl would be called the strongest Cuban player in history, performed well below his current 2768 rating. The tenth stongest player in the world has lost eight Elo points and is now ranked number eleven.

Hungarian GM Zoltan Almasi scored a minus one, which was exactly what his current rating would lead us to expect.

The same result by Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons was achieved with two wins and three losses (as opposed to Almasi's one win and two losses). "Paco" Vallejo is a fighter who is capable of any result in a given game.

The big disappointment was Super-GM Vassily Ivanchuk, who in six previous appearances in Havana had proved invincible. This time he did not win a single game and lost two (to Vallejo and Almasi). In the live ratings "Chucky" has dropped 15 points and moved five places down to number twenty in the world.

Bruzon playing a future Capablanca in the hotel lobby

Round-by-round results of Elite tournament

A dream car in Havana – can anyone identify the exact model?

Or this one, which is being lovingly attended to [Please use the comments section below]

Photos by María del Carmen Ramón

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN: Elite – Premier (courtesy TWIC) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.