Monday, September 24, 2007 Antonio, Laylo draw matches; Yap wins anew By Jed C. Calomarde Sun.Star Correspondent
FILIPINO Grandmaster (GM) Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. and IM Darwin Laylo stayed within striking distance from the pace-setting Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto even as they were held to draws in the fifth round of the 6th Asian Individual Chess Championship at the Cebu International Convention Center GM Megaranto tallied 4.5 points as Chinese GM Jun Zao, ranked 11th in this tourney, held him to a draw in 70 moves of an English defense. GM Megaranto, who is ranked 12th , sustained his grip of the lead as he had earlier defeated Chinese GM and No. 3 seed Hao Wang in the fourth round.
GM Antonio halved his match against IM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh in only 12 moves of a Caro Kann game, while IM Laylo played good to halve his point with Chinese GM Jianchao Zhou in 24 moves of another English defense. Antonio and Laylo share third place with 3.5 points.
USC team member Kim Steven Yap yet created another stir as he outmoved and outhustled Chinese IM Rui Wang in a long 98 moves of a Scotch game.
Wang, with a rating of 2482, lost in a rook and pawn ending in the last moves against Yap who has a rating of 2246.
Yap joins GMs Eugene Torre and Mark Paragua and IM Wesley So in a share of fourth place with three points each. GM Torre chalked up his second win against FM Sami Khader of Jordan in 56 moves of a Dutch game. Torre had been held to drawn games in the last two rounds.
GM Paragua had a shorter game in splitting his point with Iranian GM Maghami Ehsan Ghaem in 18 moves of a Sicilian defense. Paragua earlier beat Indian IM Prasad Arun in the fourth round.
So drew his game with Indian GM Chanda Sandipan in 55 moves of a Sicilian defense. So stopped Iranian Morteza Mahjoobzardast in the fourth round.
IM G.N. Gopal of India bounced back from a fourth round defeat and beat Chinese campaigner Chao Li in 38 moves of a Sicilian to share second place with GM Pengxiang Zhang of China. Zhang, who defeated IM Gopal in the fourth round, stayed at second place with four points as he drew his game with fellow Chinese GM Hao Wang in 23 moves of a French defenseThe other Cebuano campaigners still have to improve their performance as they lost their respective assignments. IM Barlo Nadera lost his game to Iranian IM Mahjoobzardast in 29 moves of a Slav defense, IM Richard Bitoon was defeated by Iranian GM Amir Bagheri in 69 moves of a Caro Kann, IM Ronald Bancod downed FM Makinano in 44 moves of a Queen’s Gambit, while Vietnamese GM Hoang Thong Tu halted Voltaire Sevillano in 50 moves of a Trompovsky.
In the other games, GM Mohammad Al-Modiahki of Qatar split his point with Indian GM Abhijit Kunte in 35 moves of a King’s Indian, GM Utut Adianto of Indonesia drew his match with Chinese GM Shaoteng Yu, Indian GM Chakkravarthy Deepan defeated Vietnamese GM Quang Liem Le., Indian GM Das Neelotpal beat Iranian GM Elshan Moradiabadi, while Women’s GM Yan Shen drew her game with Vietnamese GM Thien Hai Dao.
The sixth round today starts at 3 pm and the games will continue until Sept. 29. (JGC)
