Have You SEEN How Well Jospem Is Doing At The World Cup? Jose Martinez, We Salute You!
This time last year GM Jose Martinez, aka "Jospem", was valiantly defending his reputation in the World Chess Clash of Blames contest. We found him a wonderful person to be around.
Now the Peruvian-born streamer, known mostly for his online play, is busy pulling up trees over-the-board at the FIDE World Cup. It's great to see.
So far, as we head towards the business end, the World Cup in Goa has been an exhilarating ride with big names falling like flies and some stunning chess being played.
One great storyline is the veteran former world title contender turned beloved commentator GM Peter Leko. He was still fighting in Round 4. No-one, not least himself, expected that given he's been semi-retired and only made a late decision to enter. Leko, sadly, has said this will be his last World Cup.
But it has been Martinez, the 26-year-old online specialist now representing Mexico, who has blazed arguably the most impressive underdog trail through the rounds so far.
On Wednesday, Martinez downed 2675-rated GM Alexey Sarana with the black pieces to advance smoothly to Round 5. In just an hour and a half of play, Jospem got the draw he needed, making him the first to go through. Jospem's army of fans rejoiced—and so did we.
Martínez opted for the 2.c3 Alapin Variation against the Sicilian. Sarana erred and fell into a well-known opening trap.
Martínez seized the initiative with the striking piece sacrifice 13.Nxa7! Nxa7 14.Ne5!, creating a double attack on the queen and the f7-pawn. Martínez was then able to force Sarana into accepting the draw.
Here, five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand shows off the key moment:
In the previous round, Martinez had laid to waste to none other than the former World Rapid champion GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (the world number 12) with a shock 2-0 victory.
Martinez had previously knocked out 2618-rated Serbian GM Velimir Ivic and the lower-rated South Korean CM Isaak Huh in Round 1.
Going into the fifth round starting on Friday, Martinez has a stellar performance rating of 2787. There he'll meet either Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, who's also been pulling up trees, or another underdog who's gone under the radar so far in the Swedish GM Nils Grandelius.
Martinez came to the World Cup after a strong performance at the Fujairah Superstars Open, in the United Arab Emirates, where he finished third.
He is already the Mexican number-one and has now firmly established himself as the top-ranked player from Latin America.
Well done, Jospem!