GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Young International Master (IM) Christian Gian Carlo Arca moved into a share of the lead with three others after scoring back-to-back wins Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026, heading into the penultimate round of the prize-rich Manny Pacquiao International Chess Open at the Family Country Hotel.
The 17-year-old Arca, the only teenager in the company of battle-tested men, took down second seed Grand Master (GM) Pa Iniyan of India in a marathon 71-move sixth-round duel, then followed it up with a tactical win against compatriot GM Daniel Quizon in the seventh round.
His double victory lifted him into a four-way tie at the top with erstwhile solo leader GM Novendra Priasmoro of Indonesia, fourth seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Bulgaria and ninth seed GM Platon Galperin of Sweden. All four players have 5.5 points going into the final two rounds.
At press time on Friday, Feb. 27, Arca was playing black against Naiditsch in Round 8, while Galperin was handling white against Priasmoro. Six other players with five points each remained in hot pursuit of the $20,000 top purse put up by boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, himself a chess enthusiast.
Tied for fifth to 10th place, half a point behind, were fifth seed GM Timur Gareyev, sixth seed N.R. Visakh of India, seventh seed Li Min Peng of Singapore, eighth seed Vitaly Sibuk of Sweden, 2024 Pacquiao International Open champion IM Arif Abdul Hafiz of Indonesia and GM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam.
Naiditsch and Galperin are still unbeaten with four wins and three draws. Naiditsch dashed the upset hopes of veteran Filipino IM Chito Garma in the seventh round, winning with black of a Three Knights opening.
Galperin, a 22-year-old Ukrainian-born player representing Sweden since 2023 after fleeing the February 2022 Russian invasion of his homeland, beat third seed Tin Jingyao of Singapore.
After losing to journeyman Alexis Emil Maribao in the second round, Arca has strung up four wins and a draw in the last five rounds, including a morale-boosting game against top seed Super Grandmaster Johan-Sebastian Christiansen of Norway (Elo 2659) in the fourth round.
Against Quizon, the last and only grandmaster the Philippines has produced in the last 25 years, Arca played aggressively, playing the Reti Opening with dynamic play on the queenside.
Held in conjunction with the city’s 87th Kalilangan Festival, the nine-round Swiss system tournament has attracted a total of 16 grandmasters from 13 countries — one of the strongest fields ever assembled for a chess event in the Philippines. / PACQUIAO MEDIA BUREAU