WESLEY SO

KHANTY-Mansiysk, Russia — The fairy tale-like campaign of GM Wesley So came to an end Wednesday after losing his three rapid tiebreak matches to GM Vladimir Malakhov of Russia in the 2009 World Chess Cup at the Khanty-Mansiysk Center of Arts.

The 16-year-old Filipino champion failed to shake off the older and more-experienced Malakhov in the first two classical games like what he did in stunning former world championship finalist GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and defending champion GM Gata Kamsky of the United States in the earlier rounds.

Slowed down by two hard-fought draws in their classical games, So was forced to battle it out with the 22nd-seeded Malakhov (ELO 2706) in rapid tiebreak stage. But the Filipino, who was once quoted by foreign journalists here that he prefers to play in tiebreaks, could "not oversee that Malakhov feels completely at home in rapid."

The final score: 4-1 for Malakhov.

Despite his failure to reach the final eight, So earned $30,000 (roughly P1.4 million) in prize money by reaching the round-of-16.

"Children's time is over. Good bye young talents. Your Khanty-Mansiysk fairy tale is over," said the official World Cup website in its December 3 entry.

Aside from So, the two other remaining young talents – GM Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Maxim Vachier-Lagrave of France – were also eliminated by their more-exprienced Russian rivals.

Also making it to the last eight are GM Dmityr Jakovenko of Russia, who slammed the door on compatirot GM Alexander Grischuk, 5-3; and GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, who showed the door on GM Etienne Bacrot of France, 3.5-2.5.

Already in the quarterfinals are GM Peter Svidler of Russia, who eliminated GM Alexei Shriov of Spain, 1.5-.5; GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who ousted GM Viktor Laznicka of the Cezch Republic, 1.5-.5; and GM Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, who dumped GM Nikita Vitiugov of Russia, 1.5-.5.

The quarterfinal games will pit Gelfand against Jakovenko, Gashimov against Ponomariov, Svidler against Malakhov and Mamedyarov against Karjakin.