Thursday, November 23, 2006 Foreign grandmasters on top
FIVE foreign grandmasters shared first place after round seven yesterday of the 1st Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup International Open Chess Championships at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Parañaque City.
Grandmasters Victor Mikhalevski of Israel, Alexander Onischuk and Varuzhan Akobian of USA, and Pengxiang Zhang and Zhong Zhang of China scored 5.5 points each.
Cebuano IM Richard Bitoon scored four points and is only worth gunning for top 10 honors in the week-long international tournament.
Fellow Cebuano Anthony Makinano, who drew GM Ni in the third round, can kiss his second IM norm goodbye after scoring only three points with two rounds remaining.
“Kinhanglan lagi nga six points or 5.5 points akong score para makakuha ko og another IM norm,” said Makinano, who had captured his first norm in Malaysia.
Round seven
In their round seven encounters, Zhang and Onischuk halved the point after a draw at board one, while Mikhalevski beat GM Vladimir Belov at board two.
At board three, Pengxiang scalped International Master Darwin Laylo.
With two more rounds left, the country has four other top woodpushers in strong contention to finish first place.
IM Ronald Dableo and National Masters Oliver Barbosa, Sander Severino and Nouri Hamed shared sixth place along with GMs Hua Ni of China and Vladimir Belov of Russia with five points apiece.
Among other Filipinos in shaky contention for the top purse were GM Mark Paragua, IMs Chito Garma, Laylo, Yves Rañola, Jayson Gonzales, Oliver Dimakiling and Wesley So, and NM Rolando Nolte.
12th place
All of them shared 12th place along with IM Rui Wang of China, Tahir Vhakidov and fellow Chinese Weigi Zhou with 4.5 points each.
In round eight pairings, which are playing in presstime yesterday, Onichuk will take the white pieces against GM Mikhalevski at board one; Pengxiang going against Akobian at board two; Ni duels on Zhang at board three; and Belov against the Ilonggo-speaking Hamed at board four.
Other eight round pairings in corresponding boards from fifth to 11th, Barbosa against Dableo, Wang against Severino, Paragua against Rañola, Vakhidov againt Jayson Gonzales, Garma against Dimakiling, Laylo against So and Nolte against Zhou. (JAF)
