Barbosa gains share of lead in Asian chess

FILIPINO Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa beat Indonesian Fide Master Novita Anjas to share the lead in the fourth round of the 11th Asian Continental Individual Chess Championships on Wednesday in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Barbosa hiked his total to 3.5 points, the same output of GMs Ding Liren of China and Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia, who downed Indian GM Sethuraman S P and Chinese GM Zhao Jun, respectively.

Tied with them are Chinese GM Yu Yangyi and IM Liu Qingnan who drew their game.

GM John Paul Gomez rebounded by Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, climbing to 3.0 points, good for a tie for 6th to 11th place.

GM Mark Paragua settled for a truce with Chinese FM Wei Yi and improved to 2.5 points.

The country’s No. 1 player, GM Wesley So, however, continued to struggle,  notching his four straight draw for 2.0 points in the company of GM Darwin Laylo, who also drew with Indian IM Narayanan Srinath.

IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia was stuck at 1.5 points after losing to Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta. Asia’s First GM Eugene Torre drew with Vietnamese FM Nguyen Van Hai to tie Garcia in this qualifier for next year’s World Chess Cup. Roy Luarca