INQUIRER Sports

TOP SEED Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili and Iranian GM Esham Ghaem Maghami beat their respective rivals in the ninth and final round yesterday to share top honors at the conclusion of the 5th Prospero Pichay Cup Chess Championships at the LWUA Building in Quezon City.

Mchedlishvili, who holds an Elo Fide rating of 2613, defeated Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta after 54 moves of Queens Indian Defense while Maghami nipped Chinese Li Shi Long after 29 moves of Dutch Defense.

Mchedlishvili and Maghami, both tallied 7.0 points in the nine round Swiss-system tournament, organized by NCFP president Prospero ?Butch? Pichay Jr. The duo pocketed $4,500 each after splitting the combined prize of $9,000 for the top two finishers.

Mchedlishvili however, captured the Pichay Cup title after the tie break was applied.

Meanwhile, World Chess Cup-bound GM Rogelio ?Joey? Antonio Jr., bested Georgian GM Merab Gagunashvili after 32 moves of Pirc Defense to score 6.5 points, the same output of Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Singaporean GM Zhang Zhong.

Antonio settled for third place, Ngoc Truong Son landed at 4th and Zhang finished 5th overall after the tie break. The three pocketed $2,167 each.

?Nang nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataon maka atake sa king?s side pinilit kong manalo,? said Antonio, the top Filipino finisher in the tournament. GM Antonio was also the top Filipino performer in the recent PGMA Cup 2009.

In other results, Ngoc Truong Son defeated Kazakh GM Anuar Ismagambetov after 41 moves of Catalan Opening while Zhang stopped the winning run of Asia?s First GM Eugene Torre after 54 moves of Nimzo-Indian Defense.

Meanwhile, Cebuano IM Richard Bitoon again failed to notch his third and final GM norm in the Pichay Cup after losing to GM Torre in the 8th and penultimate round.

Even if Bitton, who hails from Medellin, Cebu wins his final round assignment, he will still fall short of the required 6.5 points to clinch a GM norm. He has 4.5 points with still a round left as of Tuesday.