Laylo paces Asian Zonal; Torre also rises with 4th win

TAGAYTAY—Grandmaster Darwin Laylo won his fourth-round assignment and then drew with compatriot GM Mark Paragua to keep the solo lead after five rounds of the Asian Zonal Chess Championships at the Tagaytay International Convention Center here.

Laylo, the 2009 Asian Zone 3.3 champion who trounced Vietnamese GM Cao Sang late Thursday, improved to 4.5 points and moved closer to snaring one of two World Cup slots at stake in the Open division of the nine-round biennial competition.

Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre and top seed GM Zhang Zhong of Singapore trailed Laylo with 4.0 points each following wins  over Vietnamese Fide Master Nguyen Duc Hoa and GM Nguyen Anh Dung, respectively, yesterday.

The 59-year-old Torre, a 20-time Olympian, claimed Nguyen as his fourth straight victim after 37 moves of a Reti opening.

“It was a complicated position, but somehow I found a winning line,” said Torre, the longtime pillar of Philippine chess who reached as high as No. 17 in the world rankings in the 1980s.

With 3.5 points each were Paragua, Cao, Singporean IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming, Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto and Filipino IM Richard Bitoon.

Megaranto and Bitoon fought to a draw while Go split the point with Filipino IM Oliver Barbosa, who was bunched at 3.0 points with nine others, including countrymen GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio, GM John Paul Gomez, IM Rolando Nolte and FM Jan Emmanuel Garcia.

The 15-year-old Garcia, the newly crowned Asian Under 16 champion, chalked up his first win, after four straight draws, at the expense of Indonesian Wahyudi Surya while Antonio and Gomez settled for a draw.

The sixth round was still being played at presstime with Laylo and Torre tangling in the top board and Zhang tackling Megaranto in the event organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and hosted by the Tagaytay City government through Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino, who is also the Asian Zone 3.3 president.

Indonesian WGM Irine Kharisma Sukandar paced the women’s division with 4.5 points.

Sukandar, who was battling top seed IM Li Ruofan (3.5 points) of Singapore in the sixth round, subdued Vietnamese WGM Hoang Thi Bao Tram (3.0 points).

Dresden Olympian WFM Chardine Cheradee Camacho and Jedara Docena were the best local hope for the lone Women’s World Championship berth at stake with 3.5 each.

Camacho downed Mongolian Uuganbayar Ikhamsuren (3.0) while Docena thwarted Indonesian WFM Warda Aulia Medina (2.0).

Christy Lamiel Bernales (3.0) repulsed compatriot Mikee Charlene Suede (2.0).