Indonesian shares chess lead

Asian Individual Chess Championships/Round 3 (Complete)

 Standings after three rounds:

3 points - W. So (RP), Y. Yu (China), S. Megaranto (Indonesia)

2.5 - C. Li (China), H. Ni (China), R. Yu (China), L. Ding (China)

2 - R. Antonio (RP), D. Laylo (RP), J. Gomez (RP), R. Dableo (RP), O. Dimakiling (RP), J. Garcia (RP), O. Barbosa (RP), A. Macala (RP), K. Sasikiran (India), E. Ghaemmaghami (Iran), D. Neelotpal (India), A. Gupta (India), K. Yang (China), D. Sharavdorj (Mongolia), A.D. Nguyen (Vietnam), J. Zhou (China), W. Zhou (China), A. Golizadeh (Iran), H.M. Nguyen (Vietnam), S. Sethuraman (India), S. Lu (China), T. H. Dao (Vietnam), B. Gundavaa (Mongolia), P. Darini (Iran)

SUBIC, Philippines – GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia brought down second seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran of India to forge a three-way tie for the lead with GM Wesley So of the Philippines and GM Yu Yangyi of China in the third round of the 2010 Asian Individual Chess Championships at the Subic Exhibiiton and Convention Center.

Megaranto, one of only two Indonesians in the tough 89-player field, outwitted the highly rated Indian champion in a tense endgame battle which extended late into the night to gain a share of the limelight with So and Yu.

So overpowered compatriot IM Oliver Barbosa in 56 moves of the Slav in the keenly watched all-Filipino showdown to remain with perfect scores of three points in this prestigious, nine-round tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) in cooperation with the Philippine Sports Commission, Department of Tpuism, PCSO, Pagcor and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.

So continued his risk-taking style with the white pieces and wisely steered the game out of a drawish endgame to clinch his third straight win in the tournament, which offers a total cash prize of $50,000 and five slots to the World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia next year.

The 16-year-old Filipino champion, who plans to skip college this school year to pursue his chess career, forced an exchange of the queens before the first time control and gained a favorable endgame with his more active two rooks and two bishops plus pawn against Barbosa’s two rooks and two knights.

“He (Barbosa) made a slight mistake in the opening. Napilit ko yung exchange of queens kaya medyo nakalamang sa endgame. Before the exchange, unclear pa yung position,” said So, who counts Barbosa as one of the few Filipino players who still hold an even career record against him.

Yu outsteadied IM S.P. Sethuraman of India.

Half a point behind the three leaders with 2.5 points each are four other Chinese players - GM Ni Hua, GM Li Chao, GM Ding Liren and untitled Yu Ruiyuan.

Ni Hua, whose ELO of 2667 put him as the highest-ranked player in the vaunted 19-man Chinese delegation here, defeated surprise second round Filipino winner Allan Macala, who won by default over GM Mohammed Al-Sayed of Qatar in the second round Thursday. Al-Sayed reportedly over-slept in his hotel room and failed to arrive on time.

Comebacking GM-candidate Ronald Dableo crushed WIM Rout of India to join the big group of two-pointers.

The list included World Cup veterans GMs Rogelio Antonio Jr. and Darwin Laylo, who both had a quiet and uneventful day.

Antonio, who finished in a tie for third place in the same qualifying tournament here last year, settled for a draw with fellow GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam in only 26 moves of the Reti. A mainstay of Philippine Army, Antonio defeated IM Kaiqi Yang of China in the first round and drew with IM Rui Gao of China the following round.

Laylo, the reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion, also split the point with untitled Shanglei Lu of China.

Another highly rated Filipino campaigner,   GM John Paul Gomez, was also held to a draw by GM Das Neelotpal of India.

National junior standout Jan Emmanuel Garcia also made his presence felt when he split the point with GM Tu Hoang Thong of Vietnam.

Not as lucky, however, were Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre and IM Richard Bitoon, who yielded to Pouria Darini of Iran and GM Li Chao of China, respectively.

In the women’s division, Akiko Suede toppled WFM Khouloud Essa Al-Zarouni of UAE to finally join the winners’ circle with her first win in three games.

Cristy Lamiel Bernales and Aices Salvador agreed to a draw in an all-Filipina showdown, while WIM Beverly Meendoza lost to WIM Kiran Moharty of India.