Sevillano seals GM title in California

ENRICO Sevillano finally completed his Grandmaster requirements at the ripe age of 42 recently.

The Cebu-born and now US-based Sevillano, toting an Elo rating of 2526, topped the 21st Metropolitan Chess Fide Invitational held Aug. 3 to 7 at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Los Angeles, California, to secure his third and final GM result.

Sevillano, the 1986 Asian junior champion and 2008 US Open titlist, bested fellow International Masters Melikset Khachiyan and Levon Altounian in the last two rounds to score 6.0 points out of a perfect 9.0, besting American GM Robert Hess (Elo 2624) and Russian IM Roman Yankovsky, both with 5.5 points.

Sevillano, a two-time Chess Olympian (1992 and 1994) before immigrating to the United States in the late ’90s, will be conferred his GM title in the next Fide Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, coinciding with the 2012 Chess Olympiad set Aug. 27-Sept. 10.

After obtaining his first GM result in 2003 in the Los Angeles International, Sevillano took time out from chess and did not get his second GM norm until last December in the 13th Metropolitan Chess Invitational.

Sevillano will join the growing stable of Filipino GMs that also include Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, Bong Villamayor, Nelson Mariano II, Mark Paragua, Wesley So, Darwin Laylo, Jayson Gonzales, John Paul Gomez, Joseph Sanchez, Roland Salvador, Julio Catalino Sadorra, Rogelio Barcenilla, Oliver Barbosa, Richard Bitoon and the late Rosendo Balinas Jr. Sevillano will become the third Cebuano GM after Sanchez and Bitoon. Roy Luarca