Barbosa wins; Paragua, Gomez lose in Asian chess

FILIPINO Grand Masters Oliver Barbosa, Mark Paragua and John Paul Gomez posted contrasting results yesterday in the 7th round of the 11th Asian Continental Individual Chess Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Barbosa defeated GM Lu Shanglei of China, Paragua lost to GM Yu Yangyi of China while Gomez yielded to GM Salem A R Saleh of UAE.

The win raised Barbosa’s total score to 5.5 points good for a tie for second to fourth spots along with Yu and Saleh.

Paragua and Gomez, remained at 4.5 points the same output of the country’s top rated chesser GM Wesley So and 10 others. So drew with GM Abhijeet Gupta of India.

GMs Eugene Torre and Darwin Laylo won their respective games for 3.0 points while IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia halved the point with FM Nguyen Van Hai of Vietnam for 2.5 points.  /Correspondent Marlon Bernardino