GRANDMASTER (GM) John Paul Gomez continues his winning ways to keep the Philippine flag high. However, countryman GM Richard Bitoon yielded in the sixth round of SDAT-RMK 4th Chennai Open Grand Master Chess Tournament on Sunday in Chennai, India.
The Binan, Laguna bet Gomez toppled Navin Kanna of India to raised his total 5 points and climbed into a share of fifth to 15th placers in the company of GM Martin Kravtsiv of Ukraine, GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, GM Hoang Thanh Trang of Hungrary, Ma Qun and Zeng Chongsheng of China, GM Sheturaman SP, International Masters (IMs) Himashu Sharma, Konguvel Ponnuswamy, Karthikeyan P and Debashis Das of India, conqueror of Bitoon.
With the setback, the Medellin, Cebu ace Bitoon was stuck at 4 points and was dropped into a tie for 41st to 77th placers that inlcudes compatriots GMs Mark Paragua and Oliver Barbosa.
The Bulacan based Paragua split the point with Hemant Sharma of India while the Taytay, Rizal native Barbosa routed Harini S of India.
Top seed GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus, meantime beat IM Jahongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan to scored 5.5 points and create a four-way tie for first place together with GM Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine, IM Vaibhav Suri of India and Yu Ruiyuan of China.
Oleksienko nipped IM Das Neeoltpal of India; Suri crushed IM Vishnu Prasanna of India and Ruiyuan clobbered IM Akshayraj Kore of India.
In the seventh round, Gomez will meet IM Karthikeyan; Bitoon opposite Hemant; Barbosa will play Pradeep Kumar of India while Paragua tangle Navalgund Niranjan of India.
Backed up by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) Chairman/President Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr., Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Ricardo "Richie" Garcia and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) President Jose "Peping" Cojuangco, the India chess campaign is a part of the Philippine Chess Team preparation for this year's 38th World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.
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