Uzbek tops PGMA Cup chess; Antonio, Dimakiling top RP finishers

GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan emerged as the champion in the fourth President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Cup international chess championship Wednesday at the Duty Free Fiesta Mall in Parañaque City. Filippov, seeded third with an ELO of 2595, subdued IM Richard Bitoon of the Philippines in the eighth round late Tuesday and drew with top seed GM Mikhail Mchedlishvili of Georgia in the final round to finish with a nine-round aggregate of 6.5 points on four wins and five draws.

Four other players – GMs Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam, Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran, Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia and Gopal Nayanan of India - also finished with similar scores of 6.5 points but lost the title to Filippov in the tiebreak. Truong Son, who held the solo lead after the seventh round, settled for back-to-back draws with Mchedlishvili and Gagunashvili in the eighth and ninth rounds. Ghaemmaghami, the lone Iranian player in the field, made the biggest jump when he defeated GM John Paul Gomez of the Philippines in the eighth round and GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia in the ninth to finish in a tie for first place. Gagunashvili beat GM Meng Kong Wong of Singapore and halved the point with Nguyen, while Nayanan drew with Kotanjian in the eighth and trounced GM Darwin Laylo of the Philippines in the final round. The five players, however, earned US$4,000 each out of the total prize fund of $40,000 in the tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). Mchedlishvili, the highest-rated player here with an ELO of 2613, finished in sixth place with six points in a tie with GMs Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Oliver Dimakiling of the Philippines. Antonio, one of three players who will represent the country in the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia next month, drew with GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan in the eighth and then nipped compatriot GM-elect Ronald Dableo in the final round. Dimakiling drew with Dableo in the eighth round and won over No. 16 Pyotr Kostenko of Kazakhstan in the final round to join Antonio as the highest-placed Filipino players. Mchedlishvili, Antonio and Dimakiling pocketed $1,333 each. Nine other players, led by Filipino GMs Jayson Gonzales, Buenaventura “Bong" Villamayor and Gomez and IM Richard Bitoon, finished in ninth to 17th places with 5.5 points. They received $933 each. Also in the group were Kotanjian, Ismagambetov, GM Das Neelotpal of India and Emmanuel Senador. Laylo, the reigning Asian Zone 3.3 champion, and Dableo, the country’s newest GM, led four other players with five points. Defending champion, GM Eugene Torre, who won the title in a three-way tie last year, withdrew after the seventh round. He finished with 2.5 points on five draws and two losses. - GMANews.TV