GM Gomez remains top Pinoy performer in India
Grandmaster (GM) John Paul Gomez remains the top Filipino performer in the ongoing SDAT-RMK 4th Chennai Open Grand Master Chess Tournament in Chennai, India.
This after the Binan, Laguna native beat Swayams Mishra of India yesterday using the disadvantageous black pieces after 37 moves of a Slav defense in the ninth round of the 11-round, Swiss system tournament.
The victory pushed the Filipino GM’s running total to 7.0 points after nine rounds of play in the tournament which attracted 297 players including 16 Grandmasters, 31 International Masters, 2 WGMs and 3 WIMs from 15 countries.
Meanwhile, GM Oliver Barbosa of Taytay, Rizal accumulated 6.5 points after defeating IM Babu N Sudhakar of India in 40 moves of a Slav defense.
Also with 6.5 points is GM Richard Bitoon who hails from Medellin, Cebu, who brought down IM Toth Christian Endre of Brazil in 44 moves of a French defense. Another Filipino entry GM Mark Paragua from Bulacan split the point with FM Ghosh Diptayan of India in 29 moves of another Slav defense to pad his tally to 6.0 points.
Meanwhile, overnight co-leaders top seed GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus and Yu Ruiyuan of China ended their respective games in fighting draws to share the lead with 7.5 points each in this 11-round championship.
Aleksandrov split the point with GM Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine after 60 moves of Slav defense while Ruiyuan drew with GM Sethuraman S P of India after 82 moves of an English Opening.
The India chess campaign of the four Filipinos is part of the Philippine Chess Team’s preparation for the forthcoming 38th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey this year.
Their stint is backed by the NCFP, PSC and the POC.
