Garcia, Gomez win 3rd round matches

INTERNATIONAL MASTER Jan Emmanuel Garcia and Grandmaster John Paul Gomez hacked out contrasting victories on Thursday in the third round of the 11th Aeroflot Open Chess Championships 2012 at the Hotel Cosmos in Moscow, Russia.

Garcia breezed past IM Antonio Palacios of Venezuela while Gomez survived a gutsy stand by Fide Master Felix Jose Ynojosa also from Venezuela in Division B.

Garcia raised his total to 1.5 points to share 49th to 81st place in the 130-player tournament.

Earlier, Garcia suffered a heart-breaking loss to WFM Maria Ivana Furtado of India via default then settled for a truce with FM Rakhim Pasiev of Russia in the second round.

Gomez, on the other hand, tallied 1.0 point to climbed into a share of 82nd to 110th place.

In the first and second rounds, Gomez lost to FM Armen Shaginjian of Russia via default and to FM Wei Yi of China respectively.

In the fourth round, Garcia faces FM Sergey Savitsky of Russia while Gomez battles IM Le Quang Long of Vietnam.

GM Emre Can of Turkmenistan, IM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine and FM Sergey Grishchenko of Russia shared the lead with perfect 3.0 records.

The Filipinos’ stint in the tournament is part of the Philippine Team’s preparations for this year’s 38th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino