Quizon misses shot at history, falls short vs Armenian GM

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino International Master Daniel Quizon missed out on making history as he lost his 11th and final round game to Armenian Grandmaster Emin Ohanyan Thursday night in the World Juniors Chess Championships in Gujarat, India.

That defeat — a 40-move result of a Modern Defense — sent the Budapest Olympiad-bound 20-year-old World Cup veteran to a 10-player tie for sixth place with 7.5 points and ninth in all after tiebreakers were applied.

Ohanyan ended up tied for first with Kazakhstan’s IM Kazybek Nogerbek, who trounced Aremnia’s GM Mamikon Gharibyan, before the Kazakh ended up grabbing the title with a higher tiebreak score.

But it could have been Quizon who, knowing Ohanyan was in deep time trouble, tried to squeeze out a win out of what appeared to be a drawn position, hoping to win it all and become the first Filipino world juniors’ king and earn an automatic GM title.

But as fate would have it, it wasn’t just meant to be.

Quizon, whose trip was backed by Kamatyas Chess Club’s David Almirol, Jr. and IM Roderick Nava, had two chances of drawing the game outright but he deliberately passed up on it that proved to be fatal as he blundered into defeat with an errant knight’s bishop capture late.

Had Quizon just drawn, he would have ended up tied for second and easily took second place because of his high tiebreak.

If he had, the second place-effort would have been the best finish by a Filipino in the annual event since GM Banjo Barcenilla ended up third in the 1991 title in Mamaia, Romania.

If there’s any consolation, Quizon has gained 9.1 elo points, which hiked his current rating from 2448 to 2457.1 and pushed it closer to breaching the 2500-rating plateau, which would make him a full-fledged GM.