KUALA LUMPUR—Filipino Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa beat International Master Jahongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan on Saturday and keep his title-retention bid alive in the DYTM Raja Nazrin Shah International Open Chess Championship 2012 at Olympic Sports Hotel here.
Barbosa made full use of his unstoppable passed pawn on the a-file to win after 60 pushes of King’s Indian skirmish to raise his total to 5.5 points in seven rounds, just half a point behind top seed GM Sergei Tiviakov of the Netherlands.
Tiviakov earlier stopped unrated Indonesian teenager Jodi Setyaki Azarya in their Sicilian encounter to push his total to 6.0 points.
GM Darwin Laylo was held to a draw by fellow Filipino International Master Oliver Dimakiling after 76 moves of the Bogo Indian Defense to tally 5.0 points alongside his buddy GM Mark Paragua and nine others.
Paragua forced a draw against GM Cao Sang of Vietnam after 94 moves of their Nimzo Indian encounter.
Also with 5.0 points were GMs Raset Ziatdinov of the United States, Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and Deepan Chakkravarthy J. of India, Woman Grandmaster Rout Padmini of India, IMs Rolando Nolte of the Philippines, Nguyen Duc Hoa and Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam and Vishnu Prasanna V. of India and Fide Master Ronnie Lim of Malaysia.