Pascua gets share of fifth place in Subic chess

International Master Haridas Pascua extracted 1.5 points out of games against Grandmasters Levan Pen­tsulaia of Georgia and Vla­dislav Kovalev of Belarus to snare a piece of fifth place after the penultimate round of the Philippine International Chess Championships at Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel in Zambales on Saturday.

Pascua, 23, stunned the fourth-seeded Pentsulaia in 27 moves of the English Opening in the seventh round on Saturday morning and then escaped with a 49-move draw with No. 6 Kovalev of a Sicilian Rosso­limo to climb to a share of No. 5 with five points each going into the final round.