FILIPINO Grandmaster (GM) Oliver Barbosa was held to back-to-back draws in the 7th and 8th rounds to drop into a tie for second place with one more round to go in the Indonesia Open Chess Championship at the Lamerieden Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.
His latest draw was against GM Sandro Mareco of Argentina in the eighth round yesterday. Barbosa also drew with GM Wang Yue of China in the 7th.
The Taytay, Rizal based chess player now has a total score of 6.0 points on four wins and four draws in the nine round, Swiss system that dangles a total prize fund of $10,000. The champion will bring home $6,000.
Also with 6.0 points are Wang, Mareco, GM Li Chao of China and Barbosa’s last round opponent GM Aleksey Dreev of Russia.
Meanwhile, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India defeated GM Vladislav Tkachiev of France to grab the solo leadership with 6.5 points.
The Philippines’ top rated chess player GM Wesley So and GM Richard Bitoon, both tallied 5.5 points and were tied at 7th to 12th places. /Correspondent MARLON BERNARDINO