Unheralded Roel Abelgas bested fellow Fide Master Minh Thang Tran of Vietnam in the seventh round yesterday to vault into contention in the 2016 PSC-Puregold International Chess Challenge at Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel in Olongapo, Zambales.
Abelgas, a chess instructor at De La Salle Health Sciences Institute in Dasmariñas, Cavite, prevailed in 47 moves of a Gruenfeld Makasanov Variation to climb to a share of fourth place with United States-based GM Mark Paragua and four others with two rounds to go.
The 36-year-old Abelgas, who stunned International Master Oliver Dimakiling in the sixth round Friday night, and Paragua, who drew with Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili, climbed to 4.5 points, a full point behind joint leaders GM Wang Hao of China and GM Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus.
Paragua, the first Filipino to breach the Elo 2600 mark but has since dropped to 2492, trounced International Master Paulo Bersamina in the sixth round.
The top-seeded Hao, boasting an Elo of 2678, settled for a draw with No. 2 seed GM Anton Demchenko (2632) of Russia in 42 moves of a Ruy Lopez Modern Steinitz while Kovalev (2595) bested Russian GM Boris Savchenko in 37 moves of a Ruy Lopez Closed Variation. Both amassed 5.5 points.
At solo third with 5.0 points is Gerogian GM Merab Gagunashvili, who beat Chinese Woman GM Lei Tingie in 79 moves of an Indian Game Normal Variation.
Sharing fourth to ninth places with Paragua and Abelgas are Belarusian GM Kirill Stupak, Pantsulaia, Demchenko and Mchedlishvili. Stupak and Pantsulaia split the point to remain in the hunt for the $7,000 top purse.
Bidding for top five finishes are IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia, who subdued Hamed Nouri, Lei, Savchenko and Indian IM Abhimanyu Puranik, who foiled WGM Janelle Mae Frayna. —ROY LUARCA