Sunday, September 30, 2007 Laylo in; Antonio fails By Jed C. Calomarde Sun.Star Correspondent
FINAL Standings. 1st Zhang, Pengxiang (China), 2nd Wang Hao (China), 3rd Abhijit Kunte (India), 4th Zhao Jun (China), 5th Susanto Megaranto (Indonesia), 6th Wen Yang (China), 7th Darwin Laylo (RP), 8th Zhou Jianchao (China), 9th G.N. Gopal (India) and 10th Enamul Hossain (Bangladesh), 11th Rogelio Antonio (RP), 12th Mohammad al-Modiahki (Qatar), 13th G. Rohit (India).
DARWIN Laylo made the top 10 while Pinoy Grandmaster Rogelio Antonio Jr. barely missed out in the final round of the Asian Individual Chess Championships at the Cebu International Convention Center.
“This is our time to shine. We are the new generation,” said newly crowned Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Darwin Laylo as he secured his seventh place finish yesterday in the top ten.
Laylo, needing only to split his point, did so with Chinese super GM and number two seed Zhang Pengxiang in only nine moves of a Slav defense in the last round to end the 11 round tournament with 7.5 points. Zhang, for his part, got first place with eight points.
Antonio failed in his attempt to make it to the top ten. Antonio, not finding any good positional headway with his black pieces, agreed to a draw with Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto in 18 moves of a Caro Kann. With the draw Antonio landed in 11th place. Megaranto, on the other hand, snared the fifth place for his effort.
Chinese super GM Wang Hao landed in second place with eight points. Although Wang and Zhang have eight points apiece Zhang’s higher tiebreak points won for him first place. Wang beat fellow Chinese Li Chao.
Getting the third place is Indian GM Abhijit Kunte who defeated the number one seed Chinese GM Ni Hua. Kunte finished with 7.5 points while Ni had 6.5 points.
GM Zhao Jun is in fourth place while compatriots GM Wen Yang finished in sixth place and GM Zhou Jianchao got eighth place. Although Kunte, Zhao, Megaranto, Wen, Laylo and Zhou have 7.5 points, their respective tiebreak scores earned for them their respective places.
Zhao drew his game with Wen, while Zhou stopped IM Filippov Anton of Uzbekhistan. Antonio, was tied with four others with seven points but the tiebreak scores made the difference.
First norm
Cebuano Kim Steven Yap, who got his first IM norm, did not play good in the last round and lost to Indonesian GM Utut Adianto in 22 moves of a Sicilian; IM Richard Bitoon drew his game with FM Seyed Javad Alavi; IM Barlo Nadera lost to GM Amir Bagheri of Iran; FM Anthony Makinano defeated FM Sami Khader in 38 moves of a Dutch game while Voltaire Sevillano lost to FM Ahmad Samhouri of Iraq.
GM Eugene Torre played well in the last round by stopping FM Tsegmed Batchuluun of Mongolia, GM Mark Paragua drew GM Chanda Sandipan of India in nine moves of a Sicilian while IM Wesley So drew with GM Thien Hai Dao of Vietnam.
In other games IM Oliver Dimakiling won over Alexey Kim of Korea; GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran beat IM Julio Sadorra; Robel Legaspi lost to GM Zang Weiqi of China; IM Ronald Bancod defeated women’s GM Shen Yang; Nouri Hamed drew with Rustum Tolentino; Emmanuel Senador drew with Efren Bagamasbad; and Mirabeau maga lost to Babu Lalith of India.
