PASCUA SCORED BACK TO BACK DRAWS IN ASIAN YOUTH CHESS

FM  Haridas Pascua scored back to back draws against second seed Das Debashis of India in the fourth round and No,. 13 seed Konstantin Kazakov of Kazakhstan to stay within striking distance in the boys 18 years old and under category in the 2010 Asian Youth invitational chess championships at the Beijing Convention Center in Beijing, China.

Pascua, who finished  15th in the recent Asian Junior chess championships held in Chennai, India last month,  raised his score to three points, a full point behind FM   Amirreza Pour Ramezanali of Iran and Upadhaya Anwesh of India at the halfway mark of the  tough, nine-round tournament.

He is now tied for seventh to 13 th places.

The 17-year-old pride of Mangatarem, Pangasinan  opened his campaign in the 28-player field with a smashing victory over T.S.S.Peinis of Sri Lanka in the first round but  drew his next two assignments against  Ali Faghirnavaz  of  Iran and Hanbin Li  of  China

The fifth-seeded Filipino campaigner will meet  No. 14 Bobur Ohunov of Uzbekistan in the sixth round.

“Haridas is still in good position right now, but he has to play a lot better in the coming rounds,” said head of delegation and coach Idelfonso Datu in his report to National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president/chairman Prospero “Butch” Pichay and secretary-general Mayor Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino.

Pascua’s counterpart, Christy Lamiel Bernales,  was not as fortunate, however.

Bernales, seeded 10th, settled for a draw with  Shetty Shristi of India in the fourth round. And lost to second seed WFM Mitra Hejazipour of Iran in the fifth round to drop into a tie for  13th to 17th places with only 2.5 points.

The veteran campaigner from Nueva Ecija  also dropped her opening-round match against Gohver Joraeva of Turkmenistan but recovered to beat Bilegjargal Bayashgalan of Mongolia  int he second round  and  Munirah Mat Ramin of Malaysia in the third round.

She will next meet  Shidhali Shetye of India.

The other Filipino campaigners in this prestigious competition organized by the Chinese Chess  Association in cooperation with the Asian Chess Federation also had modest showings so far.

Reigning national junior champion Paulo Bersamina  trounced Jisoo Bae of Korea in the fourth round and drew with Shaikh Nubairshah of India  in the fifth round to climb into a tie for eighth to 13 th places with three points in the boys 13 under.

Bersamina  earlier won over Enkhdalai  Munkhdorj  of Mongolia in the first round,  drew with Hongyu Zhiang of China  in the second round and lost to second seed  Diptayan  Ghosh of India in the third round

Jan Nigel Galan bowed to Behtash Salimfard of  Iran in the fourth round and won over Tolendi Syzdyk of Kazakhstan to remain in 18th place with two points in the boys 16 under..

Davao City sensation Austin Jacob Literartus continued to struggle in the boys 14 under, drawing with Weichao Chu of China and losing to  FM Che Quoc Huu of Vietnam to lag behind in 22nd place with only two points.

Haince  Patrick de Leon  crushed Benjamin Oh of Hong Kong  and drew with Agbileg Uurtsaikh of Mongolia to stay in 23 rd place with 2.5 points in the boys 10 under.

In the girls 14 under division, Jannele Mae Frayna swept her two assignments against  R.M. Muhandiram of Sri Lanka and  Ganbaatar Sakhanzaya of Mongolia but remain in 11 th place with only three points.

Frayna is two full point beind solo leader Seshadri Srija of India.

In the girls 12 under,  Shania Mae Mendoza  lost twice to No. 4 WFM  Li Zhuoling of China and  Anastasia Patricks of Indonesia to drop to 20 th place with only two points to show.

In the girls 10 under,  Jesca Docena  lost to Erdene Ragchaabazar of Mongolia in the fourth round and  won over Senarath Binudi of Sri Lanka to move into 22 nd place with two points.

The Philippines failed to send representatives

BY: Marlon Bernardino