Barbosa, Chinese share 6th round lead of Indonesia Open chess

CHINESE Grandmaster (GM) Wang Yue toppled French GM Vladislav Tkachiev in yesterday’s sixth round to share the lead with Filipino GM Oliver Barbosa in the ongoing Indonesia Open Chess Championship at the Lamerieden Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Barbosa on the other hand, split the point with Chinese GM Li Chao. Wang and Barbosa, both tallied 5.0 points after six rounds and will face each other in the seventh round with the solo lead on the line.

“Sana mahakawan ni Oliver ang momentum. Sana magpatuloy ang swerte niya,” said National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. who sponsored the Filipino’s Indonesian stint.

Another Filipino bet GM Darwin Laylo routed Indon Surya Wahyudi to score 4.5 points and climb into a share of 3rd to 12th places in the company of Tkachiev, Li, the Philippines’ top rated chess player GM Wesley So, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India, GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia, GM Sandro Mareco of Argentina, GM Alexander Fier of Brazil, GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia and IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam.

Ganguly routed GM Mark Paragua of the Philippines, Kotanjian drew with So, Megaranto split the point with Mareco and Fier halved the point with Van Huy.

With the loss, Paragua remained stuck with 3.5 points together with GM John Paul Gomez who settled for a truce with WGM Regina Pokorna of Slovakia.

Other Filipinos still fighting in the $10,000 tournament were Asia’s First GM Eugene Torre, Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., and Richard Bitoon who had with 4.0 points each. Torre beat Aris T.L.S. of Indonesia, Antonio waylaid FM Kasmiran of Indonesia and Bitoon crushed FM Deni Sonjaya of Indonesia.

Scores of the other Filipino campaigners: IM Oliver Dimakiling (3.0 points), FM Mari Joseph Turqueza (2.0 points) and untitled Emmanuel Emperado (2.0 points).
The nine-round championship awards $6,000 to the winner. /Correspondent MARLON BERNARDINO