MANDAUE City – GM Eugene Torre trounced Korean GM Alexey Kim in 49 moves of a Four Knights Open to wheel back into contention halfway through the sixth Asian Individual Chess Championship at the Cebu International Convention Center here last night.
The victory hike Torre’s output to four points for a share of fourth place with eight others, a full point behind GM Susato Megaranto of Indonesia who salvaged a draw against GM G.N. Gopal of India to keep the solo lead with five points after six rounds of play in the 11-round championship.
It was Torre’s third win against two draws and one loss and it boosted his bid for one of the 10 slots to the World Chess Cup slated in Russia late this year.
Megaranto blew an early positional advantage with the white pieces but flashed his deep understanding of the Sicilian to force a standoff after 55 moves.
Gopal now has 4.5 points for a share of second with compatriot Negi Parimarjan, who dealt Darwin Laylo his second straight defeat in the tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Phils.
It was the second draw in as many days for the 20-year-old Megaranto after racking up four straight wins, including two against Filipino opponents.
GM-candidate Wesley So held sixth seed GM Utut Adianto of Indonesia to a draw in 51 moves in their slambang Bishop’s opening where the latter surprised the former by sacrificing a knight for two pawns in the 16th move to create a passed pawn on d-file.
But the Filipino bet, who will represent the country in the World Junior Chess Championships in Armenia next month, held his ground against Adianto.
GM Mark Paragua also settled for a draw with upset-conscious IM Steven Yap of Cebu to join So, Laylo and Yap, a protégé of Cebu sports patron Boojie Lim, in a big group with 3.5 points.
IMs Julio Catalino Sadorra and Ronald Bancod also hurdled their matches for their third straight win following three losses. Sadorra downed GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam while Bancod shocked IM Mohammad Al-Sayd of Qatar.
In All-Filipino matches on the lower half of the standings, IM Oliver Dimakiling drew with IM Richard Bitoon, NM Anthony Makinano downed NM Manny Senador and Rustum Tolentino stopped MIrabeau Maga.