Georgian GM captures crown; RP’s Antonio finishes 3rd
10/07/2009 04:39 PM
Top seed GM Mikhail Mchedlishvili of Georgia edged fellow GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran in the tiebreak to capture the title even as GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. finished a fighting third in the fifth Prospero Pichay Cup international chess championship at the LWUA Bldg. in Quezon City.
Mchedlishvili, the highest-rated player in the field with an ELO of 2613, outwitted GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in the final round to clinch the title with seven points on five wins and four draws.
Ghaemmaghami subdued GM Li Shilong of China to finish in a two-way tie for first place with Mchedlishvili with seven points.
But the sixth-seed player from Iran settled for runner-up honors due to a lower tiebreak score.
Mchedlishvili and Ghaemmaghami, however, went home US$4,500 richer each.
It was the second title in less than three weeks for Mchedlishvili, who also topped the Ravana GM tournament in a two-way tie with GM Vladimir Georgiev of Macedonia in Sri Lanka last month.
The smile was back on the faces of the Filipino chess fans, too.
Antonio outduelled GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia to clinch third place and emerge as the highest-placed Filipino player for the second straight time since a sixth-place finish in last week’s fourth President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup.
The multi-titled campaigner from Calapan, Oriental MIndoro, who earned a slot in the coming World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia next month, finished in a tie for third to fifth places with GMs Nguen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam and Zhang Zhong of Singapore with 6.5 points.
Nguyen whipped GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan while Zhang trounced GM Eugene Torre of the Philippines to catch up with Antonio.
Antonio, however, finished ahead of Nguyen and Zhang in the tiebreak.
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Wesley would have won it.
The way he played in the recent Spice tournament, doubt it.
They need to find more Filipino talents to “protect their turf” and being beaten up by foreign players.