Barbosa stops Russian GM for joint 2nd

MANILA, Philippines - IM Oliver Barbosa capped his remarkable performance in the Moscow Open Chess Championship, beating No. 11 GM Sergey Volkov of Russia to finish tied for second at the Russia State Social University in Moscow Sunday.

Barbosa, bidding to become the Filipino GM this year, went the full distance before humbling his highly rated rival in 66 moves of the Queens’ Gambit Declined. He wound up with 7.5 points on seven wins, one draw and one loss.

The Filipino, however, finished only ninth after the tiebreak.

Barbosa, 24, gained the initiative at endgame following an exchange of queens and rooks as Volkov blundered on his knight move on the 48th, netting the Filipino bet a rook for a knight two moves later.

The Pasig City native, who tied for first with GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili in the Asean Championship in Singapore last December, rode on his shock penultimate round victory over GM Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan to dish out a solid finish.

He finished just half a point behind surprise champion GM Vladimir Belous of Russia.

Belous, seeded only 38th in the 582-player tournament, upset GM Nikolai Kabanov to capture the crown with eight points.

Barbosa shared runner-up honors with GMs Zhou Weiqi and Yu Yangyi of China, GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan, IM Igor Kovalenko of Ukraine, GM Maxim Matlakov of Russia, GM Stanislav Voitsekhovsky of Russia and GM Sergey Tiviakov of the Netherlands.

GM John Paul Gomez drew with Lu Shanglei of China to end up joint 24th with 6.5 points.