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By Frank Calapre, Correspondent
MANDAUE CITY: Grandmaster Rogelio Antonio
Jr. and International Master Darwin Laylo humbled separate foes
Friday to remain unbeaten in the second day of the 6th Asian
Individual Chess Championship at the Cebu International Convention
Center.
The 44-year-old Antonio endured a
long 78-move game as he beat fellow GM Chakkravarthy Deepan of India
in a Ruy Lopez that lasted for five hours to secure his second
straight win in the 11-round tournament organized by the National
Chess Federation of the Philippines.
Antono, with an ELO rating of
2532, avoided a draw in a double-edged rook and pawn with accurate
moves against his time-pressured Indian rival after missing several
opportunities midway.
The second highest-ranked
Filipino in the tournament after Eugene Torre (2536) actually missed
several opportunities in the middle game but methodically
prevailed with his more active pieces down the stretch.
At the end of the game,
Antonio had a rook and three pawns against Deepan’s rook and two
pawns.
“Matagal at mahirap yung panalo
but I’m satisfied with my performance. I’ll take the win
anytime,” said the visibly tired but relieved Antonio, who
opened his bid for a second World Cup stint with win over No. 55 FM
Weiming Goh of Singapore.
Antonio’s victory was
overshadowed by Laylo, who defeated GM Sandipan Chanda of India in
46 moves of the Slav defense for the day’s biggest upset.
Joining Antonio and Laylo on top
are GMs Wang Hao, Zhao Jun and Yu Shaoteng of China, GM Abhijit
Kunte and IM G.N. Gopal of India and GM Susanto Megaranto of
Indonesia.
In the third round, Antonio will
play against Gopal, a winner over GM Eugene Torre (2536) while Laylo
will face Megaranto, who won over IM Wang Rui of China.
In other second round results,
third-seeded Hao (ELO 2626) downed GM Das Neelotpal of India, Jun won
over GM Tu Hoang Thong of Vietnam and Zhaoteng prevailed over local
Steven Kim Yap.
GM Mark Paragua and IM Wesley So
both have 1.5 points along with 12 other players in the 13-day
competition organized by the National Chess Federation (NCFP) and
supported by the Department of Tourism and Pagcor.
Paragua failed to sustain his
winning form with a draw against Tsegmed Batchuluun of Mongolia in
75 moves of the Slav while So prevailed over IM Lanka Ravi of India
in 56 moves of the Caro Kann.
The top 10 finishers in this
18-nation tournament with a total pot of $40,000 (P1.8 million) will
earn slots in the World Cup to be held in Khanty-Mansiyk, Russia
later this year.
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