By Roy Luarca
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:25:00 03/26/2009
DAPITAN CITY—An in-form Wesley So trounced fellow Grandmaster John Paul Gomez Wednesday to grab the solo lead in the Battle of Grandmasters at the Dapitan City Resort Hotel.
Handling white with precision, So gained tempo on their tactical duel and was on the verge of moving a pawn up when Gomez resigned after 25 moves of a French Defense.
The 15-year-old So, the opening round conqueror of GM Buenaventura “Bong” Villamayor, thus raised his total to 4.0 points under the novel scoring system being applied in the 11-round tournament. A win is worth 2.0 points, a draw 1.0 and a loss 0. If a stalemate occurs, the player who stalemates his opponent gets 1.5 points while the stalemated player receives 0.5 point.
The bespectacled Gomez, highest Filipino scorer in the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad, remained at 2.0 points.
Trailing So at 3.0 points were Grandmaster Rogelio “Joey” Antonio and International Master Richard Bitoon, who both settled for draws Wednesday.
Antonio downed IM Julio Catalino Sadorra Tuesday night before being forced to a draw by IM Rolando Nolte after 37 moves of an Alekhine Defense.
Bitoon agreed to a truce with Sadorra after 30 moves of a Nimzo-Indian Defense.
Smarting from his loss to So, Villamayor subdued IM Ronald Dableo after 56 moves of a Slav Defense to climb to 2.0 points in the company of GM Eugene Torre, Gomez, GM Darwin Laylo and Nolte.
In the women’s division, Women National Master Jan Jodilyn Fronda matched So’s 4.0 points with a victory over WNM Rulp Ylem Jose after 63 moves of a Nimzovitch Defense.
Lurking behind Fronda at 3.0 points are Woman FIDE Masters and sisters Shercila and Sherily Cua.
Source: Sports Inquirer
No comments:
Post a Comment