PHL’s top chessers end Asiad campaign on sour note

GUANGZHOU — Even the country’s top chess players — GMS Wesley So and Rogelio Antonio, Jr. — wore long faces at the end of another sad, sad day for the Philippines in the 16th Asian Games. So, at 17 the country’s brightest young player, struggled mightily in the final three rounds and dropped all the way from a share of third place to a tie for 14th to 21st places at the end of the nine-round, rapid chess competitions. Back-to-back losses to Indian GMs Krishnan Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the seventh and eighth rounds pulled down So in the overall standings in this 46-player, 25-nation tournament being held as part of the quadrennial event for only the second time. So, seeded fifth here with an ELO of 2669, settled for a draw with fellow GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan in the ninth and final round to finish with five points on four wins, two draws and three losses. Overall, he finished in 14th place after the tiebreak score. Antonio, the country’s second highest-rated player, did slightly better, finishing in 13th place with 5.5 points. The 48-year-old native of Calapan, Oriental MIndoro managed only one win and two draws in the final three rounds to finish in a five-way tie for ninth to 13th places with 5.5 points on four wins, three draws and two losses. Antonio, however, finished last among the five players who tied for ninth spot due to a lower tiebreak score. A reserve officer of the Philippine Air Force, Antonio drew with GM Mohammed Al-Sayed of Qatar in the seventh round and FM Ahmed Minhazzudin of Bangladesh in the eighth round before closing out his campaign with a victory over GM Saleh Salem of the United Arab Emirates. The gold medal went to GM Rustan Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan, who split the point with GM Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan in the ninth and final round. - KY, RCJ, GMANews.TV