Lopez unbeaten after 2 rounds

PANABO City’s Arena grand master (AGM) Henry Roger Lopez, with username Du31, stays unbeaten after two rounds in the ongoing 1ST Philippine National Bullet Chess Championship Online First Leg.

The 21st-seeded Lopez beat ACM Vincent Bryan Paragas (maginoo1) in Round 2 after splitting point with Nino Bondoc (ynbb) in the first of the nine-round chessfest organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.

He shared the 40th to 55th places with other players who also tallied 1.5 points led by grand master (GM) Darwin Laylo (Darwin_Laylo01).

It can be recalled that Lopez, who graduated as a chess varsity scholar at Holy Cross of Davao College, formed part of the country’s double gold medalist chess team in the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Top seed U.S.-based Rogelio Barcenilla (Banjovi) currently leads the 211-player field with perfect two points.

Barcenilla swept his matches against Wil Maghanoy (preleste)and Zomer Amir (parengBok).

Second seed IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia (Nyxnyxnyxnyxnyx) and third seed IM Paula Bersamina (fastestmanalive) placed second and third, respectively. Both also scored two points along with 37 others.

Garcia defeated John Edward Vito Cruz (skylord052300) and Jesse Abucejo (BobTheBuilder07) while Bersamina outclassed Cyrus James Damiray (easypeezy1029) and Jose Aspiras (Waurp) in the first two rounds.

Rounding up the top 10 are teo-pointers Ellan Asuela (asue07), Kevin Arquero (vinrai), NM Joey Albert Florendo (JoeyFlorendo), Fide master Nelson Mariano III (CoachEloMariano08), AGM John Michael Silvedero (Xychael27), Michael Concio, Jr. (KB824) and Eric Labog, Jr. (Omegadeath12).

The third-round pairing was not yet posted as of Tuesday.