Bersamina brilliant in Asian online chess

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines reaped more honors in the Asian Nations Online Chess Cup after International Master Paulo Bersamina won a gold medal, Grandmaster Banjo Barcenilla a silver and WIM Jan Jodilyn Fronda a bronze in the individual board awards.

The 22-year-old Bersamina has been the best performer among the Filipinos as he scored seven points on six wins, two draws and a loss out of nine games in snaring the gold on board three.

Higher-ranked GMs M. Amin Tabatbaei of Iran and Max Illingworth of Australia took the silver and the bronze, respectively.

Two of his wins came at the expense of GMs Maghami Ehsan Ghaem of Iran and Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan while drawing with two more GMs in Tsegmed Batchuluun of Mongolia and S.P. Sethuraman of India.

Barcenilla, for his part, copped the silver on board two behind Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto and ahead of Indian GM Parham Maghsoodloo.

Barcenilla, a two-time Battle of the GMs champion, scored six points out of eight, including a shock win over Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the highest rated chesser in this tournament with a rating of 2646.

Fronda, for her part, snatched a bronze on board two after ending up with 5.5 points out of eight, including a miraculous win over IM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva in the Filipinas’ shock 2.5-1.5 victory over second seed Kazakhstan that sent the Lady Agilas to the quarterfinals.

The Agilas took the second seeding after the nine-round elimination and will face the No. 7 Kazakhs in an interesting re-match tomorrow.

The Philippines won their initial match, 2.5-1.5, in the eighth round last Sunday.