International Masters Roderick Nava and Haridas Pascua came through with strong results to lead the country’s charge after three rounds of the 7th Asian Continental Chess Championships (2nd Manny Pacquiao Cup) at the Tiara Hotel in Makati City on Wednesday.
Nava, 33, upset IM Novendra Priasmoro of Indonesia, whose rating of 2483 is way higher than the Filipino’s 2392, while Pascua, 25, picked up his third straight draw against 18th seed GM Abhimanyu Puranik of India.
It was the second straight point for Nava, who climbed to an 11-man logjam at 13th place. Not only is he the highest scorer among the locals but he is also just half a point behind the 12-man lead pack headed by second seed GM Wei Yi of China.
Nava will battle top seed GM Wang Hao of China in the fourth round.