San Diego keeps Asian Youth lead

SUBIC—Marie Antoinette San Diego stunned third seed Sagar Tejaswini of India in the sixth round Thursday night to keep the Philippine challenge going in the 2011 Asian Youth chess championships at the Subic Bay Travelers Hotel here.

The pride of Dasmariñas, Cavite, gold medalist in last year’s Asean Primary Schools Olympiad held in Jakarta, Indonesia, raised her score to 5.5 points and stayed half a point ahead of two-time world under-8 champion Maria Ivana Furtado in the girls 12-under division of the nine-round event hosted by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.

San Diego, a product of Milo-Checkmate under Mila Emperado, is the lone Filipino pacesetter in the 20-nation competition being dominated by the vaunted Indian delegation.

Filipino top seed Jan Emmanuel Garcia was held to a draw by Indian Nima Javanbakht and dropped to solo second place in the boys 16-under with five points, half a point behind another Indian, Antonio Viani  D’ Cunha.

Also with strong medal chances at second place were Chery Ann Mejia in the girls 16-under and Dennis Gutierrez III in the boys 8-under.

Mejia shocked Indian top seed  Bodda Pratyusha to vault to 4.5 points, 1.5 behind perfect scorer P.V. Nandhidhaa.

Gutierrez trounced Erdene  Baasansuren of Mongolia to improve to 4.5 points, 1.5 behind another perfect scorer, Arawind  Ram of India.

Another Filipino campaigner in the girls 12-under, Samantha Glo Revita,  drew with Nilufar Yagubbayeva of Uzbekistan to share third to seventh places with four points.

Moving into contention with 4.0 points were Mikee Charlene Suede, Cheradee Chardine Camacho, and Jan Jodilyn Fronda, who hurdled their respective opponents  in the girls 18 under category.