Cebuano Bitoon shares lead in Singapore chess

Cebuano chess grandmaster Richard Bitoon and Indon GM Susanto Megaranto beat their respective rivals yesterday to share the lead after four rounds of the Singapore International Chess Festival dubbed as the 2nd ASEAN Men Campomanes Cup at the Jurong East Sports Complex in Singapore.

Bitoon of Medellin, Cebu trounced FM Daniel Chan of Singapore while Megaranto, the 2011 Southeast Asian Games standard chess gold medallist, bested IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam. Bitoon and Megaranto both tally 3.5 points in four outings.

However, another Filipino entry Nelson Mariano III yielded to GM Cao Sang of Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the rising stars of Philippine chess flexed their muscles in the 2nd Singapore International Youth Championships.

Vince Angelo Medina led the onslaught by beating compatriot Marc Christian Nazario for his third straight win. He shares the lead with Shannon Scott Neubronner of Singapore in the Open Under-17.

Michelle Yaon was alone on top, at least for the moment, in the Girls U-17 after defeating Gole Shweta of India and moving a full point clear of Woman FIDE Master Danielle Ho of Singapore. They’re playing a round-robin format with only nine participants in their division.

FIDE Master Paulo Bersamina and Jerad Docena locked the top spot in the Open U-14. Bersamina and Docena toppled erstwhile co-leaders Aloysius Chia and Vairavan Arjun of Singapore to remain perfect after three rounds.

WFM Marie Antoinette San Diego traded a pawn for a positional advantage in the middle game to beat Anastasia Patricks of Indonesia and grabbed the solo lead in the Girls U-14 with 3.0 points.

Daniel John Lemi also remained unbeaten after ripping Aryaman Singhania of India to get a spot in the crowded leader board in the Open U-11 which has 98 participants with nine players toting similar 3.0 points.

But there were some meltdowns elsewhere.

Me Ann Joy Baclayon and Darlyn Villanueva lost against Singaporean rivals to relinquish their share of the lead in the Girls U-8.

The Filipinos also dropped a step in the 8th Singapore Open, which officially became wide open following the withdrawal of top seed GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, whose 2636 ELO rating is at least 178 points ahead of the rest.

FM Nouri Hamed and Alex Milagrosa settled for a draw against Benjamin Foo and Rahman Masruri of Indonesia respectively to fall a half point behind co-leaders GM Eldar Gasanov of Ukraine and FM Andrean Susilodinata of Indonesia.

NM Arlan Cabe joined his compatriots in a share of third spot with 2.5 points after stopping the surprising run of unrated Filipino Jelvis Calvelo, who earlier stunned CH Savetha of India with a rare checkmate.