Julio Becerra: Now Leading the Grand Prix!?

Becerra: The Magic Number 7, Plus or Minus 170.183

As you may have noticed, there hasn't been a WCL newsletter in a little while--in fact, it's been a full three weeks! Your Kindly Editor (YKE) was out of the country recently, and as a result, the WCL Readership has had to make do without.

The big news upon YKE's return, however, was undoubtedly that GM Julio Becerra was somehow leading the Grand Prix! (Click here for the full standings.) "But that's impossible!" YKE exclaimed upon hearing the news. Becerra has only won Grand Prix Points in five Grand Prix Events!"

Surprisingly, Becerra's name really does appear only five times on the list of WCL Grand Prix tournament winners. Compare that with, say, eighteen times for IM Alex Lenderman, who is currently in fourth place with 151.267 points. (Second-place GP leader GM Alexander Ivanov has won GP points in nine events; third-place GP leader GM Sergey Kudrin has made do with only six, however.)

What are these five great Becerric events? They are, not surprisingly, BIG events: the Foxwoods Open, the Oklahoma FBK USA Championship Qualifier last March, the 16th Annual Southern Open in June, a smaller NY Grand Prix which Becerra won out-right, and--most recently--the Florida State Championship just this September. He now has 177.183 Grand Prix points, leaving him more than ten points ahead of Ivanov! Is Becerra's face a welcome change to shake up the Grand Prix charts, which are usually dominated by Kudrin and Ivanov? Or will it not be long before Ivanov or Kudrin dominates once again? Email your opinion to KindlyCoach@gmail.com. Be sure to look for more on Becerra in an upcoming Grand Prix segment in the back of Chess Life Magazine.

Catching Up On All Ye Olde Chess News

In just a few weeks, YKE managed to miss out on more chess excitement than he could have possibly imagined. First, Topalov crushed his opposition in Bilbao, becoming the World's #1-rated player. This was obviously disappointing for us Magnus Carlsen fans--I would have liked the chance to use that kiddy hand-print border again.

And right after the end of Bilbao, experience defeated youth again when GM Alexandra Kosteniuk defeated 14-year-old GM-elect Hou Yifan of China. With all this experience crushing youth, I had to sit back and watch GM Joel Benjamin's Game of the Week below to make me feel okay with being a youngster myslef.

And, of course, we've got the SPICE Cup going on. With so much going on in that tumultous Texan top GM-event, the only thing not exciting about it is that it doesn't count for the Grand Prix!

But, chances are, you didn't need me to tell you all of this. Surprisingly, everything in this section is already old news!

Kiblitzing: Who Do You Want?

Given his recent worldly travels, YKE hasn't managed to procure any new Kiblitzes. But before you start booing, take note that this little breather may be your opportunity as a reader to get a word in edgewise. What do I mean? Well, perhaps you'd like to see Julio Becerra, the new leader of the WCL Grand Prix, featured in one of our Kiblitzes here. Or perhaps you'd rather see an up-and-comer like Daniel Naroditsky. In any case, as part of the readership, your opinion matters. So send it along as an email to the WCL newsletter editor at KindlyCoach@gmail.com!

Just as a head's up, next week's newsletter should finally feature another edition of our WCL Newsletter Radio Show, with soon-to-be-released audio footage of Jonathan Hilton interviewing Sergey Erenburg. The interview, which took place a few weeks ago, will contain several insightful comments by Erenburg that foreshadow his fall from the #1 spot in the WCL Grand Prix.

Chess.FM Update

"Many years ago, experience would compensate for the superior energy and motivation of youth," begins GM Joel Benjamin in his Chess.FM Game of the Week presentation. Benjamin's GOTW this week takes a close look at an exciting match-up from the "Experience vs. Youth" Rising Stars Tournament in Amsterdam:
Wang Yue vs. Agdestein.

The game starts out as a fairly quiet A40 Dutch Defense, but things get ugly for the experienced GM Agdestein when White finds an unexpected endgame breakthrough on the queenside. Whether you're a fan of Benjamin's videos, want to learn a thing or two about the Dutch, or just want to hear Benjamin's thoughts on "Youth" crushing "Experience" 33.5-16.5, you'll enjoy taking a half hour chess mini-vacation by listening to this week's Chess.FM video.