Velarde wins bronze in Asian youth chess

Jerish John Velarde won a bronze medal after finishing third among 71 participants in the Asian Youth Chess Championships 2018 Under 12 Boys competition held in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Velarde finished the 7-Round Swiss System Rapid competition with six wins for a tie with CM Qouc Hy Nguyen of Vietnam, who also finished with 6.0 points. However, in the Buccholz tie breaker method, Nguyen won 31.0 to 28.0.

The gold medal went to CM D. Gukesh of India, who swept all his assignments, including a sixth-round win over CM Nguyen. Gukesh and Velarde were not paired in the competition.

Fresh from winning all three gold medals in the elementary Boys competition for Lapu-Lapu City in the Tagbilaran City Central Visayas Regional Athletic Association (Cviraa), the incoming 6th Grader of Marie Ernestine School Velarde opened the tournament with a win over Tilekmatali Sulaimanov of Krygyzstan in the opening round.

The 36th SMC-SAC awardee major awardee for chess however was overwhelmed by top seed Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran in the second round.

But Velarde recovered and swept his next five assignments against Dinupa Adethya Hewage of Sri Lanka, Zili Yu of China, David Tai-Wei Wu of Chinese-Taipei, CM Aditya Bagus Arfan of Indonesia, and Care Greene Lee of Malaysia to move in to the rankings.

The other Filipino contenders Mark Jay Bacojo and James Henry Calacday finished at sixth and 69th places, respectively. /