Quizon seizes solo lead in chess final

San Juan Elementary School’s Daniel Quizon scored 5.5 points to wrest control in the kiddies division while two took charge in juniors play and three shared the lead in the seniors category after six rounds of the 2015 Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship national finals at SM Megamall over the weekend.

The seventh-ranked Quizon toppled Philymn Villajuan and Rheam de Guzman, upended No. 4 Adrian de Luna and sixth seed Mark Bacojo, repulsed Dennis Gutierrez III before halving the point with No. 5 Justine Mordido to show the way in the 12-and-under section.

De Luna bounced back from a third round loss to Quizon with a sweep of his next three games as the Sta. Barbara Central School standout pooled five points while Bacojo, playing out of Escuela de Sto Rosario stayed in the hunt with 4.5 points heading to the last three rounds of the 23rd staging of the country’s longest running talent search sponsored by Shell.

Earlier, Melanie Bularan, Shell social investment and social performance manager and GM Eugene Torre made the ceremonial moves kicking off the two-day tournament sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and also graced by Cesar Abaricia, Shell external affairs manager for manufacturing.

Top seed Jerome Aragones dropped two games and took one draw against three wins as he slid to joint fourth with Gutierrez, Mordido, and second seed Ronald Canino with 3.5 points while Billy Ventanilla, Irish Yngayo, Joshua Sanches and De Guzman all had three points, Villajuan and Natasja Balabbo posted two points each and Marian Calimbo, Clyde Saraos and Lorebina Carrasco II scored one point apiece.