Filipinos near gold medals in S’pore chessfest
DENNIS GUTIERREZ III, Fide Master Paolo Bersamina and Vince Angelo Medina scored crucial penultimate round victories Saturday to inch closer to gold medal in the Singapore International Chess Festival at the Jurong East Sports Complex in Singapore.
Gutierrez III, the son of national master Dennis Gutierrez, toppled FM Pham Phu Vinh of Vietnam in the eighth and penultimate round to raise his total to 7.0 points and joined Alfred Chua of Singapore at the top of the Open U-8.
Bersamina defeated Roslan Mohd Faizal of Malaysia to notch 7.0 points and take charge in the Open U-14 category. He is a full point ahead of compatriot Jerad Docena of Bohol and Chia Cheng Yi Aloysius of Singapore.
Docena, the reigning UAAP MVP-Rookie of the Year from FEU-Fern in Quezon City smashed FM Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam while Aloysius drew with Ooi Zhi Yang of Malaysia.
Medina for his part, beat Tan Han Liang of Singapore to remain on top of the Open U-17 category with 6.5 points. Marc Christian Nazario defeated Azman Hisham Mohd Nabil of Malaysia to tally 6.0 points and share 2nd to 3rd places with Azhar Muhammad Syakir Shazmeer of Malaysia who downed Shannon Scott Neubronner of Singapore.
Michelle Yaon (6.0 points) lost to WFM Danielle Ho of Singapore, but remained a half point clear of compatriot Nikki Erica Yngayo in the Girls U-17.
GM BITOON FALLS TO 2ND SPOT
In the 2nd ASEAN Men Campomanes Cup, Grandmaster Richard Bitoon drew his matches on Friday against International Masters Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam in the seventh round and Lim Yee-Weng of Malaysia in the eighth to fall in a tie for second place.
The Medellin, Cebu native has 5.5 points after eight games, the same output of ninth round opponent GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia and fifth round tormentor IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam. They trail solo leader GM Cao Sang of Vietnam by half a point.
Too bad for the chase group, Cao would face compatriot Nguyen (Duc Hoa) in the final round, virtually brushing off a possible collapse by the leader.
Known allies or players from the same nation are usually paired in the early rounds of a round-robin tournament like this one to avoid fixed results. But not this time, obviously.
“Richard is doing well in a very tight field. Alam naman natin na malalakas ang Vietnamese players and kasama pa si Megaranto, who won the gold sa long game sa last SEA Games,” said National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, Jr. “Whatever happens sa final round, I’d like to commend him for his very good performance.”
Meanwhile, Filipinos could help each other out in some fronts.
Reigning national junior champion Mari Joseph Turqueza held GM Eldar Gasanov of Ukraine into a fighting draw to share the lead heading into the final round of the Singapore Open. Turqueza earlier scalped FIDE Master Andrean Susilodinata of Indonesia for his fourth straight win.
Gasanov and Susilodinata also have 6.0 points. Turqueza would meet Robert Suelo, Jr. (5.5 points) in the last round while his fellow frontrunners would have to contend against battle-tested Filipinos – Gasanov against Alex Milagrosa (5.5 points) and Susilodinata against Arlan Cabe (5.5 points). /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino
