GOTW: Giblon - Cao, Polgar Invitational, 2016

John Upper's picture
Submitted by John Upper on Mon, 08/15/2016 - 20:05

The Susan Polgar Foundation Girls Invitational (SPFGI) was held July 23-28 at the SPICE facilities at Webster University in St. Louis. 

SPFGI is the richest prize value chess event for girls in the world. The top 3 finishers qualify for scholarships at Webster University valued at $100,000 (all figures US dollars), $56,000 and $48,000. In addition, there were cash prizes totalling $7500, including $2500 1st, $1500 2nd, $1000 3rd, $1000 bonus for a “triple crown” (3 event) winner, $500 each for the top Under-13 and Under-10 finishers, and several other smaller cash prizes.

Eight Canadians played. Rebecca Giblon lost her first game, but won her next four, and was playing for the overall win in the final round. She lost to WFM Paula Sarmiento Robles -- who tied for 1st -- to finish in a respectable 7th place, as the top Canadian finisher. Other top finishers from Canada: also tied with 4/6, were Yi Lin Yi (9th place – defeated 2015 defending SPFGI champion Thalia Vazquez Landeiro, USCF 2161), Cynthia Cui (12th place – drew Yi Lin), and Andrea Botez (13th place – drew Yi Lin). Other Canadians: Mathanhe Kaneshalingam, Linda Shi (3.5/6; 16-30); Shi Yuan (Sherry) Tian, Sydney Mah (3/6; 31-39th).

For the first time in SPFGI history, there was a 4-way tie for first place with 5/6. First tie-break was based on the highest number of wins, which left Alice Dong (USA) tied with WFM Paula Sarmiento Robles (Ecuador). They played a blitz playoff which was won by Alice Dong to become the 2016 SPFGI champion.

Our position comes from Rebecca Gilbon's round 4 game. Can you find Black's best move with only a minute left?

Rebecca Giblon annotates her round 4 win for Chess Canada.

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 Round:  Result:

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A full report by Andrew Giblon, will appear in an upcoming issue of Chess Canada, the CFC's online Newsletter.

 

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