Friday, October 31, 2008 Batucan closes to 22nd spot
HE WAS ranked No. 72 from the very start but Davao City's 12-year-old wonder John Ray Batucan proved he is made of greater stuff when he surged to 22nd place at the close of the 11-round World Youth Chess Championships in Vung Tau, Vietnam Thursday afternoon.
Toril ace Batucan, the Asean Age-Group Chess Championships twin gold medallist, bowed to 27th-seed Nico Georgiadis of Switzerland in the final round following his huge win over 89th-seed Shetty Atulya of USA in the 10th. He finished with 6.5 points along with six others.
Russian Gordievskiy Dmitry got the gold while fellow 8.5 scorer Indian Das Sayantan settled for silver. USA Fide Master Darwin Yang settled for bronze with eight points in the boys open 12.
Neptali Batucan Jr., father of John Ray, praised his son's achievement in the prestigious world youth chessfest.
"I'm very happy for my son. He came up with a very good performance," Neptali said in the vernacular in text messages to Sun.Star Davao yesterday.
The elder Batucan, who arrived in Manila at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, stayed with his son in Vung Tau from Oct. 21.
"Nalipay kaayo siya kay maayo man ang dagan sa iyahang mga dula maski wala siya'y pirmanente nga coach o trainor dili parehas sa ubang niapil nga mga grand masters (GMS) ang nag tutor (He was very happy that he performed well despite that fact that he had no regular trainer while most players were trained by GMs)," he said.
He added that John Ray's morale was low when he arrived in Vung Tau after losing his first game and drawing the next one.
"I just advised him to think hard and do his very best because he is up against the best in the world. I'm glad that he was able to recover and even pulled off some major upsets," the proud father said.
Another Davao bet, Rowelyn Joy Acedo of Buhangin, landed at 30th place with 5.5 points. No. 33 Acedo, who is a student at Jose Maria College (JMC), beat No. 43 Doan Thanh Truc of Vietnam but lost to Sophia Schmalhorst of Germany.
Another Indian, Pratyusha Bodda, also clinched the gold in girls 12 event. MLSA
