Jakarta draws Tagaytay, joins 5-way jam at 2nd

TAGAYTAY — Jakarta held host Tagaytay to a 2-all standoff Tuesday to create a five-way logjam for second behind solo leader Guangzhou after four rounds of the 14th Asian Cities Chess Championship at the Tagaytay International Center here.

Grandmasters Eugene Torre and Joey Antonio split their games with International Master Susanto Megaranto and Purnama Tirta Chandra, respectively, but fellow GM Bong Villamayor absorbed a numbing setback to IM Sittanggang Salor on board 3, enabling the Indons to draw level.

Playing with the white pieces, Villamayor made a costly blunder on the 31st of a Modern Opening where his king got trapped by Salor’s two bishops and a rook, forcing him to resign.

International Master Jayson Gonzales, saved the day for the team by upending GM Edhi Handoko in 31 moves of an Alekhine Defense.

The hosts thus joined four other teams in second with similar 10 points. This includes Mandaluyong, Tanauan and the other Indonesian squad from Samarinda. Guangzhou of China continued to pace the field with 12 points.

Guangzhou firmed up its lead by beating Mandaluyong, 2.5-1.5, in the event backed by the Department of Local Governments, Department of Tourism, Manila Sports Council, STI, Character and Tagaytay Haven hotels.

Providing Mandaluyong its lone full point was IM Idelfonso Datu, who scored his third straight win on board 3 by crushing IM Yu Shaoteng in 54 moves of his pet Reti Opening.

Mark Paragua drew with fellow IM Liang Chong on board 1, while IMs Nelson Mariano and Richard Bitoon lost to GMs Li Shilong and Liang Jingron, respectively, in the other matches.

The 32-year-old Datu, an Army Corporal and 2000 Istanbul World Chess Olympiad veteran, earlier shoved Mandaluyong to solo second in the third round by powering the team to a 2.5-1.5 victory over defending champion Pavlodar of Kazakhstan on Monday.

At the end of three rounds, Mandaluyong was all alone in second place with 8.5 points, just a full point behind frontrunnning Guangzhou while Tagaytay, Pasay, Jakarta and Samarinda were in a tie for third to sixth spots with 8 points apiece.

Mandaluyong and Tagaytay were to meet in what was expected to be a pivotal and exciting fifth-round match late Tuesday.

Tehran of Iran surprised Pavlodar of Kazakhstan by battling the defending champion to a 2-all draw and moved up in the standings with 9.5 points.

The reigning titlists slipped to a deadlock at 9 points with Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, which nipped Kanchipuram of India, 2.5-1.5.