Wesley So won the National Open, part of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival held 6-9 June at the Riviera Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. The Philippine grandmaster tied for first place with Jaan Ehlvest, Varuzhan Akobian, Alejandro Ramirez, Manuel Leon Hoyos and Enrico Sevillano, but claimed the Edmondson Cup on tiebreak.

The National Open was a 6-round Swiss event with 2-day and 3-day playing schedules, and half-point byes available for all rounds. The US $80,000 total prize fund attracted over a dozen grandmasters, including Webster students GM Wesley So and GM Ray Robson, Texas Tech student GM Elshan Moradiabadi and last year's National Open champ GM Aleksander Lenderman.

Wesley So won the Edmondson Cup, named after the founder of the tournament Ed Edmondson, by virtue of having the better tie-breaks of the six players who finished in the tie and each player collected $2,175. This way So completed a trio of victories as he also won the Blitz Open Section and US Game/10.

Here's a good win by So over GM Tamaz Gelashvili in the penultimate round.

[Event "2013 National Open"]

[Site "Las Vegas"]

[Date "2013.06.09"]

[Round "5"]

[White "So, Wesley"]

[Black "Gelashvili, Tamaz"]

[Result "1-0"]

[WhiteElo "2728"]

[Whitetitle "GM"]

[BlackElo "2668"]

[Blacktitle "GM"]

[Source "MonRoi"]

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Ne7 6.c3 h6 7.O-O Nd7 8.Nbd2 Bg6 9.Nb3 Nf5 10.g4 Nh4 11.Nxh4 Qxh4 12.f4 h5 13.g5 f6 14.Bd3 Bxd3 15.Qxd3 O-O-O 16.Bd2 fxg5 17.fxg5 Be7 18.Rf4 Qxg5 19.Kh1 Qh6 20.Rf7 Bg5 21.Bxg5 Qxg5 22.Rg1 Qh4 23.Qg3 Qe4 24.Qg2 Qh4 25.Qxg7 Qe4 26.Qg2 Qh4 27.Nd2 Rdf8 28.Nf3 Qe4 29.Ng5 Qg6 30.Re7 Rhg8 31.Qh3 Re8 32.Rxe6 Qc2 33.Rxe8 Rxe8 34.Qxh5 Re7 35.Qh8 Kc7 36.e6 Nb6 37.Qe5 Kc8 38.Rf1 Re8 39.Rf7 Qb1 40.Kg2 Qxb2 41.Kg3 Qxc3 42.Kg4 Na8 43.e7 Nc7 44.Rf8 Qd3 45.Qd6 Qe2 46.Nf3 b6 47.Rxe8

1-0

Wesley So Claims Edmondson Cup in Las Vegas

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on 6/15/13 8:09 AM.
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Here's a good win by So over GM Tamaz Gelashvili in the penultimate round.

So, Wesley (2728) vs. Gelashvili, Tamaz (2668)

2013 National Open | Las Vegas | Round 5| 9 Jun 2013 | 1-0

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Here's a video interview with the winner produced by US Chess Scoop:

There were many side events, including a simul by defending Champion GM Alex Lenderman and a Grandmaster Chess Camp for children and adults with instructors GM Melik Khachiyan, GM Ron Henley, GM Ben Finegold and others.

National Open 2013 | Final standings (top 30)

#	Title	Player	Points	Prize
1	GM	So,Wesley	5	$2,175
2	GM	Ehlvest,Jaan	5	$2,175
3	GM	Akobian,Varuzhan	5	$2,175
4	GM	Ramirez,Alejandro	5	$2,175
5	GM	Hoyos,Manuel Leon	5	$2,175
6	GM	Sevillano,Enrico	5	$2,175
7	GM	Robson,Ray	4,5	$350
8	GM	Moradiabadi,Elshan	4,5	$350
9	GM	Gurevich,Dmitry	4,5	$350
10	IM	Molner,Mackenzie S	4,5	$350
11	IM	Bradford,Joseph Mark	4,5	$350
12	GM	Gelashvili,Tamaz	4	$114
13	GM	Felgaer,Ruben	4	$114
14	GM	Holt,Conrad	4	$114
15	GM	Mikhalevski,Victor	4	$114
16	GM	Finegold,Benjamin P	4	$114
17	GM	de Firmian,Nick E	4	$114
18	GM	Ashley,Maurice A	4	$114
19	FM	Banawa,Joel	4	$114
20	IM	Martin-Del-campo,Roberto	4	$114
21		Balasubramanian,Adithya	4	$114
22	WGM	WGM Abrahamyan,Tatev	4	$114
23	GM	Lenderman,Aleksandr	3,5
24	GM	Corrales Jimenez,Fidel	3,5
25	GM	Kekelidze,Mikheil	3,5
26	GM	Margvelashvili,Giorgi	3,5
27	IM	Naroditsky,Daniel A	3,5
28	FM	Harmon-Vellotti,Luke	3,5
29		Griffith,Kyron W	3,5
30	FM	Raptis,Nick	3,5

Game via Monroi, photo & info thanks to IA Chris Bird

Chess World Magazine

Saturday, June 15, 2013