Bersamina, Indian share jrs chess lead

TAGAYTAY CITY—Top Filipino prospect Fide Master Paulo Bersamina trounced Candidate Master Marc Christian Nazario yesterday to share the second round lead with Indian defending champion International Master Srinath Narayanan  in the 2014 Asian Juniors and Girls Chess Championships at Tagaytay International Convention Center.

Gaining experience from his stints in this year’s Chess Olympiad in Norway and World Juniors in India, the 16-year-old Bersamina handled white with precision to force Nazario to resign after 31 moves of a Queen’s Pawn Opening.

Bersamina, standout of Letran in the NCAA and ranked third here with his Elo rating of 2391, climbed to a perfect 2.0 points with the top-seeded Narayanan (Elo 2461), who pounced on Mongolian Fide Master Sumiya Bilguun’s exposed king to extract the victory, in the Open division.

“He (Nazario) offered a piece (knight) for a pawn and I eventually took it,” said Bersamina.

Second seed IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia (2396) of Ateneo settled for a draw with Haque Siam Ikramul and was at 1.5 points in the company of his Bangladeshi opponent and Nepalese Bibek Thing, who halved the point with Daryl Unix Samantila.

Playing black, Garcia accepted Ikramul’s draw offer after 33 moves of a Sicilian-Dragon.

Filipinos John Merill Jacutina and Istraelito Rillorza prevailed over Alzarovni of United Arab Emirates and Renz Marvin Santos of Tagaytay City, respectively, to tally 1.0 point with UAE’s Al Rashedi Mayed, who beat Guam’s Radcliffe Paras.

Kazakh WFM Sholpan Zhylkaidarova, seeded second, downed WFM Marie Antoinette San Diego to share top spot with Indian WFM Rucha Pujari in the Girls’ division of the tournament confined to players 20 and under.

Pujari beat WFM Shania Mae Mendoza to match Zhylkaidarova’s 2.0 points.

The strength of the Indians was evident as top seed WIM Maria Furtado, PV Nandhidhaa and J Saranya were lodged at 1.5 points.

Nandhidhaa and Sarana drew their match while Furtado, the top seed, extracted the full point against Jerly Mae San Diego.

The San Diego siblings remained at 1.0 point in the company of Mendoza, Indian Joshi Supriya, WFM Mozah Al-Moaamari of the UAE, Karen Mariano and Gladys Hazelle Romero.

Mariano, also of Tagaytay City, downed Bina Jaiswal of Nepal.

The third round of the nine-round tournament being hosted by Cavite Rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino is being played at presstime.