Filipino Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra continued his rampage in the Manny Pacquiao Cup Asian Continental Chess Championship by dumping erstwhile co-leader GM Mohammed Al-Sayed of Qatar in the fourth round Tuesday night at Midas Hotel in Pasay City.
The United States-based Sadorra notched his fourth straight triumph and grabbed the solo lead in the Open division of the 13-nation event that attracted 26 GMs.
Sadorra, a business administration senior of University of Texas-Dallas, will tangle with countryman GM Mark Paragua in Wednesday’s fifth round.
“I was inspired by the visit of Rep. Manny Pacquiao, who even watched us play,” said Sadorra. “That’s why I played aggressively.”
The 26-year-old Sadorra sacrificed a rook on his 25th move to launch an all-out attack. In the end he has a rook and three pawns against Al-Sayed’s rook and a pawn.
Continuing his climb, Paragua downed Chinese IM Wan Yunguo after 39 moves of a Sicilian Defense and kept pace with top seed GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam at 3.5 points.
Le, who totes an Elo of 2714, subdued Filipino GM Darwin Laylo after 79 moves of a Gruenfeld Defense.
Al-Sayed remained with 3.0 points in the company of Filipino GMs John Paul Gomez, Richard Bitoon and Rogelio Antonio Jr. , Chinese GMs Li Shilong and Li Chao, Indian GMs Baskaran Adhiban, Babu Lalith and G.N. Gopal, Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev, and Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai.