Dableo rules after tiebreak

Ronald Dableo. FACEBOOK PHOTO

GENERAL SANTOS CITY —International Master Ronald Dableo bested erstwhile solo leader Fide Master Austin Jacob Literatus in the ninth and final round Wednesday night to top the individual event of the 2nd Manny D. Pacquiao Random Chess Championship at SM City here.

Dableo, who only needs to raise his Elo rating of 2419 to 2500 to become a full-fledged Grandmaster, tallied 8 points, the same total posted by National Master David Elorta and Henry Roger Lopez of Panabo City.

When the tiebreak was applied, the 36-year-old Dableo, coach of the men’s and women’s chess teams of University of Santo Tomas in the UAAP, ruled the roost.

The 33-year-old Elorta, a blitz exponent from Sta. Ana, Manila, subdued IM Joel Pimentel to place second while Lopez, a polio-stricken member of the Philippine team that topped the 8th Asean Para Games chess competition in Singapore recently, stunned GM Joey Antonio to land third.

The trio split the combined cash prizes for first to third places of P100,000.

Dableo, who clinched his third and final GM result in the 2009 Malaysian Open, said he would like to see action in the Chess Olympiad to earn much-needed Fide points.

NM Hamed Nouri, Literatus, the reigning national 20-under  champion, and Marc Christian Nazario all finished with 7.5 points and wound up fourth, fifth and sixth. They pocketed P11,000 each.

Bunched at 7 points and ranked accordingly from seventh were NMs Jerad Docena and Leo Mercado, Pimentel, Merben Roque, GM Darwin Laylo, Angelo Vince Medina, Alfredo Rapanot, Kevin Arquero and Francis Glenn Panes. They earned P6,000 each.

Special prizes were handed out to 10-year-old Fide Master Alekhine Nouri as top grade school student, John Marvin Miciano as top high school student, WIM Janelle Mae Frayna as top female and Ibrahim Alawi as top senior.