CEBU, Philippines - Ramsy Pedroza fought to a draw with Allan Salientes in the final round and that was all he needed to rule Week 8 of BRAASTAD Open Chess Tournament at the Magellan Landing Bar and Restaurant near Marina Mall in Lapu-Lapu City.
Pedroza, who agreed to a draw with Salientes after 53 moves of a Pirc defense, was actually tied with Salientes and Carlos Moreno III after the five-round Swiss system competition with identical 4.0 points, but bagged the top prize with a superior tie-break output 15.0 points.
Salientes settled for second place, while Moreno, who capped his campaign with a victory over Johnny Carzano after 23 moves of a Modern Averbakh, took the third place honors.
With the win, Pedroza joined the other weekly qualifiers in Aldwin Daculan, Michael Infante, Adrian Dutosme, Lemuel Montero, Ramil Resuera, Michael Pagaran, and Eden Diano into the grand finals set on December 7 at the Magellan Pub House.
The grand champion will receive P8,000 and one bottle of Braastad X.O Cognac worth P18,000. The second to fourth will take home P3,000, P2,000, and P1,000, respectively plus one bottle of cognac worth P5,600 each.
The fifth to sixth will pocket P1,000 each, while the seventh to eighth will receive P500 apiece.
The games in the BRAASTAD event are supervised by international arbiter Marvin Ruelan assisted by Tony Cabibil. For further inquiries, interested parties may keep in touch with Excel Canque at 0923-3305581 or Ruelan at 0926-7352951. (FREEMAN)