Pinoy chessers fourth in Asian Cup

AL AIN, United Arab Emirates – Tagaytay-Philippines played its usual best against Qi Yuan Club (China), drawing three of four matches in the highly-anticipated duel between two Asian powers.

But it wasn’t enough.

GM Mark Paragua fell to Zhou Weiqi in their board three encounter as the Filipinos dropped a close 1.5-2.5 decision to the Chinese in the seventh and final round of the inaugural Asian Club Cup chess team championship at the Al Ain Sports Center here Thursday.

The loss dashed the Filipinos’ hopes for an upset win and relegated them to solo fourth place at the end of the tough, 30-team tournament organized by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF).

GMs Wesley So, John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo held their ground against higher-rated Chinese opponents, drawing their matches against GM Wang Hao (Elo 2696), GM Zhou Jianchao (Elo 2612) and GM Wen Yang (lo 2508), respectively.

Paragua, however, ended up on the losing end of his match against Zhou.

Overall, Tagaytay-RP finished with five wins and two losses for 10 points, two full points behind host and top seed Al Ain (United Arab Emirates).

The Filipinos, however, pocketed a total of $5,000 for their effort.

Al Ain (UAE), which settled for a 2-2 draw with Victory Chess Club (Vietnam), finished in a two-way tie for first place with Qi Yuan Club (China) with identical scores of 12 points.

But Al Ain, bannered by GMs Sergey Karjakin and Zahar Efimenko, edged Qi Yuan with a higher tiebreak score of 168.5 points.

Qi Yuan finished with only 137.5 points.

Al Ain (UAE) and Qi Yuan (China) split the combined $32,000 first and second cash prizes.

Second seed Fajr Shams (Iran) whipped Chirchik (Uzbekistan), 3.5-1.5, to clinch third place with 11 points.

GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami defeated GM Marat Dzhumaev, GM Tigran Petrosan trounced GM Alexey Barsov and GM Arman Pashikian crushed GM Saidali Iuldachev to lead Fajr Shams to a lopsided victory worth $8,000.

GM Shukrat Safin averted a shutout when he drew with GM Mahjoob Morteza on board four.

Delegation head Willie Abalos lauded the Filipinos’ fourth-place finish, noting most of the participating teams reinforced their lineups with strong foreign players.

He pointed to Al Ain, which recruited strong Ukrainian and Chinese GMs, and Fajr Sham, which hired Armenian and Georgian players to reinforce their teams.

Abalos and the rest of the team members thanked NCFP president Butch Pichay, NCFP secretary-general and Tagaytay Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino and NCFP director Jesusito “Boyet” Legaspi of JD Construction for supporting the team.

Among the Filipinos’ victims in the week-long competition were Al Shuolaa (Yemen), 4-0, in the first round; Mon-Cad (Mongolia), 3.5-.5, in the second round; Tajikistan Chess Club (Tajikistan), 4-0, in the third; Club India India), 2.5-1.5, in the fifth; and Club Intchess (Singapore), 3.5-.5, in the sixth round.

The only other loss by Tagaytay-RP came at the hands of Al Ain (UAE), .5-3.5, in the fourth round.

In the individual standings, So finished with four wins and three draws for 5.5 points in seven games.

Laylo matched So’s 5.5/7 record with five wins, one draw and one loss on board four.

Gomez, who nailed his GM title during the 38th World Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany Nov. 12-25, finished with four points on three wins, two draws and two losses.

Paragua closed out with 4.5 points on four wins, one draw and two losses.

Asian Chess Confederation (ACF) president Shaikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Bin Shakhbout Al Nahyan awarded the cash prizes, along with Abu Dhabi Sports Council head Shaikh Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nayan.