Quizon claims another GM scalp

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino International Master Daniel Quizon caught another big fish in Grandmaster Klementy Sychev of FIDE’s refugee team to stay in the hunt for a podium finish in the super strong Masters class of the 30th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival in the United Arab Emirates Thursday.

On the receiving end of a vicious sacrificial onslaught unleashed by Sychev, the 20-year-old Olympiad-bound former World Cup veteran sprang back to life after a couple of missteps by the former.

Sychev was the second GM Quizon stunned after he shell-shocked sixth seed GM Bassem Amin of Egypt in the fourth round Monday.

It allowed Quizon to regroup and use that one piece that Sychev sacrificed earlier to essay the 41-move triumph of their Ruy Lopez showdown and leapfrog back to the top 10 with 15 others with five points, or just a point behind solo No. 1 GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan.

Quizon was battling Uzbek GM Abdimalik Abdisalimov in the eighth and penultimate round with hopes of racking up points to breach the 2500-rating plateau and become a full-pledge GM.

Quizon has accumulated 19.6 rating points and has jumped from 2457 to 2466.6.

If he couldn’t do it in Abu Dhabi, Quizon will try to achieve the feat in the FIDE World Chess Olympiad set Sept. 10 to 22 in Budapest, Hungary.