GM Torre tops 8th Asian Seniors Championship

ASIA’S first Grandmas ter (GM) Eugene Torre completed a clean nineround sweep to take the top honors in the 8th Asian Seniors Championship held at the Waipuna Conference Center in Auckland, New Zealand.

The tournament was sanctioned by the International Chess Federation.

He opened his campaign with a victory over eighth seed David Lovejoy of Australia then posted impressive wins over Anthony Booth of New Zealand in the second round, Rahman Yussof of Brunei Darussalam in the third, Filipino Edmundo Legaspi in the fourth and Pricha Srivatanakul of Thailand in the fifth.

The 66-year old Torre also outclassed second seed Ewen Green of New Zealand (sixth), Malcolm McFarland of Guam (seventh), Peter Goffin of New Zealand (eighth) and Grant Kerr of New Zealand (ninth).

Green and Legaspi were in a twoway tie for second with 6.5 points each.

But Green grabbed the second place plum via superior tiebreak points leaving Legaspi in third.

Yussof placed fourth with 5.5 points followed by Lovejoy in fifth with five points.

Meanwhile, GM Joey Antonio grabbed the solo lead with a perfect four points in the 2017 International Open Chess Championship being held at the Osborne Hall in Bacolod City.

Antonio clobbered National Master Merben Roque in the third round and Edsel Montoya in the fourth round.

Sharing the No. 2 spot are GM Srinath Narayanan of India, GM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam and GM Nigel Short of Great Britain with 3.5 points each.

Antonio will be playing Short in the fifth round in the tournament that offers $3,000 to the champion and $2,500 to the runner-up.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Asia’s first grand master Eugene Torre ( standing, far right) and the country’s first woman grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna (seated left) during the grand finals of the 24th Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship.