Abelgas upsets Viet IM; Kovalev, Wang at helm

Unheralded Roel Abelgas made some noise in what was otherwise a quiet Philippine campaign as he trounced fellow FIDE Master Tran Minh Thang of Vietnam yesterday to gain a piece of fourth spot after seven rounds of the Philippine Sports Commission-Puregold International Chess Challenge at the Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel.

Abelgas, a 36-year-old campaigner seeking a third and final norm to obtain an International Master title, outplayed Tran in the opening and played methodically in the middle game to translate it to a 47- move victory in a Gruenfeld Defense.

It came after Abelgas, a chess coach for several college teams including Perpetual Help in the NCAA, stunned IM Oliver Dimakiling in a marathon 126-move triumph in a Catalan duel in the sixth round the previous day.

With two rounds to go, Abelgas has 4.5 points to share No. 4 with countryman GM Mark Paragua, No. 8 Kirill Stupak of Belarus, No. 4 Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, No. 2 Anton Demchenko of Russia and No. 5 Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia.

Demchenko battled top seed GM Wang Hao of China to a 42move draw of a Ruy Lopez; Stupak and Pantsulaia halved the point in 92 moves of a King’s Indian; and Paragua and Mchedlishvili agreed to a quick 20- move standoff in a Trompovsky.

No. 6 GM Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus outplayed No. 3 GM Boris Savchenko of Russia (37 moves, Ruy Lopez) to catch Wang at the helm with 5.5 points apiece in this event sponsored by the PSC, Burlington, Marc Adventures Mining Inc. and Puregold.

At solo third with five points was No. 7 GM Merab Gagunashvili, who smashed WGM Lei Tingjei of China in 79 moves of an Old Indian.

IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia smashed Hamed Nouri in 27 moves of a Ruy Lopez game to barge into the top 10 with four points.

Garcia is currently tied at ninth with Lei, Savchenko and Indian IM Abhimanyu Puranik, who stopped WIM Janelle Mae Frayna in 36 moves of a Larsen Opening.