Pinoy bets shine in Schools Chess meet

THE Philippines secured three gold and four silver medals in blitz event of the 13th Asian Schools Chess Championship held at the Liaohe Art Museum in Panjin, China.

Al-Basher Buto (boys’ 7-under), Daniel Quizon (boys’ 13-under) and Jerlyn Mae San Diego (girls’ 13-under) topped their respective age bands in the tournament sanctioned by the International Chess Federation.

Buto scored seven points on seven wins and two losses in the nineround event. He outclassed Mohan Kavin of Malaysia in the first round, Aditya Kunal Patil of India in second, Zhenze Chen of China in third, Godhani Maharth of India in fourth, Yuruultei Batbaatar of Mongolia in fifth, Hou Yi Xuan of China in sixth and Ern Jie Anderson Ang of Malaysia in eighth, and lost to Aarav Nambia of India in seventh and Chen Zhiyuan of China in ninth.

For his part, Quizon garnered eight points on seven wins and a couple of draws.

Quizon won over Thenuka Kuruwita of Sri Lanka, Shia Zhanran of China, Arfan Aditya Bagus of Indonesia, Peng Shunkai of China, Zhumagali Dinmukhamet of Kazakhstan, Wang Zideng of China and Lu Hian En of Taiwan, and split the point with Kwang Wing Ki of Hong Kong and Sunnatov Mirfayz of Uzbekistan.

San Diego was actually in a threeway tie on top with Yuliya Khegay of Uzbekistan and Nanjid Tsogzolmaa of Mongolia with seven points each.

But San Diego went home with the gold medal because of superior tiebreak points.

Winning silver medals were Jerish John Velarde in boys’ 11-under ( eight points), Stephen Rome Pangilinan in boys’ 17-under (7.5 points), Kylen Joy Mordido in girls’ 15-under (7.5 points) and Allaney Jia Doroy in girls’ 17-under (eight points).

Overall, the Philippines has seven gold, 10 silver and one bronze medals in the tournament.