SUBIC—International Master Haridas Pascua stunned Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia yesterday to preside over the Filipinos’ strong showing against their Georgian counterparts and stay right behind the leaders in the 2016 Philippine International Chess Championship at Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel here.
Pascua, who has completed the GM requirements and needs only to raise his current Elo rating of 2401 to 2500 to be conferred the GM title, prevailed over the fourth-seeded Pantsulaia (Elo 2607) in 27 moves of an English Ango-Indian Defense and climbed to a tie for fifth to ninth places with 4.5 points.
The 23-year-old Pascua has gained 14 points on the strength of three wins, three draws and a first round loss.
Chinese Woman GM Lei Tingjie bested Armenian GM Tigran Kotanjan to rise to 5.0 points and share the lead with Russian GM Boris Savchenko and Belarusian GM Vladislav Kovalev, who drew their board 1 match after 48 moves of a Ruy Lopez Closed Variation, and her top-seeded compatriot GM Wang Hao.