Monday, January 22, 2007 Hamed earns IM norm in Vietnam tourney By Henry C. Villalva
NEGRENSE National Master Hamed Nouri of Escalante City, Negros Occidental earned an International Master norm in the just-concluded 2007 Asian Zonal 3.3 Chess Championship in Vietnam.
Hamed and fellow NM Oliver Barbosa as well as Women’s National Master Catherine Pereña got their respective norms as confirmed late Thursday by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) who acted as RP team delegation head to the tournament.
Hamed, who was supported in this tournament by the Escalante City Government and the JRR Dizon Foundation, settled for a truce with eventual champion 15-year-old Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam in the ninth and final round.
Had Hamed won his last round assignment he would have earned an outright International Master norm because the Asian Zonal Championship likewise serves as qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship.
Hamed and the other Filipino campaigners in the Vietnam competition can still avail of the 10 slots for the World Chess Championship in the Asian Continental Chess Champiosnhips scheduled in Manila this coming August.
Meanwhile, Barbosa bowed to 16-year-old Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in the final round.
In other matches in the final round, Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai beat IM Darwin Laylo, GM Nguyen Ahn Dung defeated IM Oliver Dimakiling while GM Nelson Mariano II drew with FIDE Master Batchuun Cegmed of Myanmar.
A win for Mariano in the final round would have given him an automatic slot in the World Chess Championship and prevented a four-way playoff for the last berth.
Hamed, a former varsity standout of West Negros College, was the highest placed Filipino player during last year's inaugural staging in Pasay City, Metro Manila of the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Open International Chess Challenge where he finished in eighth place.
