Antonio, Paragua, So pull thru in Asian tiff

MANDAUE City – Grandmasters Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Mark Paragua and International Master Wesley So kept Filipino hopes alive with contrasting victories, even as GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia made it four in a row to grab the solo lead in the sixth round of the Asian Chess Championship at the Cebu International Convention Center here Saturday.

Antonio, who is seeking his second world championship appearance in eight years, turned a losing position to an inspiring victory over IM Mohammed Al-Sayd (Elo 2469) of Qatar.

Antonio, who reached as far as the second round of the 1994 world chess championship in Las Vegas where he lost to GM Vladimir Akopian of Armenia, sealed the win when Al-Sayed blundered away his rook on the 34th move.

“It was my lucky day. He made a blunder and left his rook unprotected. Talagang nagyayari yan kahit sa magaling na player, (It happens to the best of them),” said Antonio.

 “Sana magtuloy-tuloy na ang swerte, (I hope my luck continues)” added Antonio

Paragua, the country’s third highest-rated player with an Elo of 2525, defeated IM Prasad Arun of India in 50 moves of the Semi Slav, while So, who is hoping to become the country’s newest GM at age 14, whipped IM Morteza Mahjoobzardast of Iran in only 20 moves of the Pirc to put the smile back on the Filipinos’ campaign.

Overall, Antonio moved up to the magic circle with three points on three wins against only one loss.

Paragua and So both improved to 2.5 points going into the halfway mark of the tough, 11-round tournament which wil determine Asia’s 10 representatives to the World Chess Cup in Russia in November.

Also with three points is comebacking IM Darwin Laylo, who outclassed FM Tsegmed Batchullun.

But the day belonged to Megaranto, the 20-year old Indonesian GM who toppled erstwhile leader GM Wang Hao.

Megaranto, who became Indonesia’s youngst GM at age 17, played almost flawlessly with the black pieces to beat Wang and inflicted a big blow to the Chinese dominance.