Torre forced to draw, drops to 2nd

HO CHI MINH (Via Globe Telecom)–Grandmaster Eugene Torre missed a winning line and settled for a draw with Vietnamese IM Pham Minh Hoang that dropped him to second place after seven rounds of chess competition in the 22nd SEA Games here.

But GM Joey Antonio and GM-candidate Mark Paragua both delivered a full point each and GM Bong Villamayor and IM Ronald Dableo two other draws as the Filipinos continued to show the way in team competition going into the last two rounds of the nine-round Swiss-system event.

With 2.5 points produced by victories of Sheerie Joy Lomibao and Beverly Mendoza and draw by Kathryn Ann Cruz, the Filipinas gained a share of second with Indonesia behind Vietnam in the women’s team competition.

Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Thanh An practically clinched the women’s individual gold with 6.5 points with Lomibao and Mendoza the best scorers among the Filipinas with 4.5 points at joint sixth.

"Panalo na sana ako," said Torre on the move that should have given him the win over Pham.

With Torre scoring only half-point in the round, Indonesian GM Utut Adianto, the second highest rated player here with a 2581 Elo rating, gained the solo lead as he crushed compatriot Susanto Megaranto.

Running one and two with half-point separating them, Adianto, with six points, and Torre, with 5.5 points, were to clash in a crucial encounter on Board One in the penultimate round last night.

Paragua caught up with Megaranto with five points each at third place with a win over fifth round joint leader Mas Hafizulhilmi Abd. Rahman while Antonio moved up to a share of fifth place with three players with 4.5 points by defeating Indonesia’s Dede Liu.

Villamayor and Dableo, who drew with Thailand’s Banjuab Jiravorasuk and Singapore’s Wu Shaobin, led a big group of players with a score of four points.

The other penultimate round pairings pit Megaranto versus Paragua, Antonio against Dao, Pham versus Wong Zi Jing, Wu versus Hamdani Rudin, Zaw Win Lay against Lim Yee Weng, Dableo versus GM Villamayor, Bui Vinh against Naing and Banjuab against Mas.

In the team standings, the RP men led with 19 points, followed by Indonesia with 18.5 points then Vietnam with 16.5 points.