Friday, September 21, 2007 Locals falter in round 2
THE Cebuano campaign suffered a big blow in the second round as they faced the grandmasters in the ongoing 6th Asian Individual Chess Championship at the Exhibition Hall of the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City.
IM Barlo Nadera, FM Anthony Makinano, and youthful campaigner Kim Steven Yap got a big fat egg in their matches yesterday.
IM Nadera was trounced by Chinese GM Jianchao Zhou in 39 moves of a Queen’s pawn game, while Makinano got waylaid by
Vietnamese GM Thien Hai Dao in 34 moves of a Queen’s Indian game.
Experience proved useful for Chinese GM Shaoteng Yu as he showed Yap how to play excellent chess in only 29 moves of a Sicilian defense.
IM Richard Bitoon finally got on the score sheet as he dueled the 15th seeded Iranian GM Elshan Moradiabadi to a draw in 45 moves of a Queen’s gambit.
IM Bitoon drew his first game. Cebuano Voltaire Sevillano, for his part, halved his point versus FM Goh Weiming of Singapore in 54 moves of a French defense.
GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio scored his second win to join the early leaders at the expense of Indian GM Chakkravarthy Deepan.
Antonio outmoved GM Deepan in 58 moves of a Guicco piano which lasted almost three hours.
Casualty
Veteran GM Eugene Torre became the first Filipino GM casualty as he failed to sustain his momentum in a 45-move loss of a Pirc defense to IM G.N. Gopal of India.
GM Mark Paragua settled for a draw with Mongolia’s FM Tsegmed Batchuluun in 75 moves of a Slav defense to share second place with IM Wesley So and FM Batchuluun.
So scored a win to move to a share of second spot by halting Indian IM Lanka Ravi in 55 moves of a Caro Kann.
In the other matches, Emmanuel Senador halved his point with Chinese GM Ni Hua in 43 moves; IM Ronald Bancold lost to GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India; IM Oliver Dimaking got into the scoreboard with a victory against Vietnamese FM Duc Trong Dinh; Rustum Tolentino also got his first point in stopping G. Rohit of India.
The third round starts at 3 p.m. today and all Cebuanos are invited to watch the games for free. (JGC)
