Bersamina ties Viet tormentor

MANILA, Philippines - Paulo Bersamina bounced back from a seventh round setback with a victory over Daryl Samantila to remain tied for the lead with Nguyen Van Toan Thanh of Vietnam in the penultimate round of the Asian age-group chess championships at the Traveler’s Hotel in Subic yesterdya.

The 12-year-old FEU student, who became the youngest national junior champion last month, outplayed the 13th-seeded Samantila with the white pieces to raise his output to 6.5 going into the final round of the nine-round tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) in cooperation with the ASEAN Chess Confederation (ACF).

Nguyen, who dealt Bersamina his first setback in their seventh-round encounter the boys’ 12-and-under division late Wednesday, trounced Neslon Busa Jr. in the other featured eighth-round match.

Final-round pairings pit Bersamina against Tran Ming Hoang of Vietnam and Nguyen against Carlo Caranyagan.

John Ray Batucan drew with Jarod Pamatpat then beat FM Che Quoc Huu of Vietnam to join Le Tuan Minh of Vietnam in the lead with 6.5 points in the boys’ 14-and-under category.

Davao City’s Austin Jacob Literatus whipped Le Thanh Tai of Vietnam to move up to solo third with six points.

Pamatpat shared fourth with Le with 5.5 points, while Giovanni Mejia and Allan Pason tied for sixth with five points.

Also staying in the title hunt are Richelieu Salcedo in the 20-and-under; Jan Nigel Galan and Prince Mark Aquino in the 16-and-under; and Julius Gonzales in the eight-under.