PINOY WOODPUSHER SHINES IN NORTH AMERICAN OPEN CHESS;POCKETS $2,000

MANILA, PHILIPPINES—US based Pinoy Oscar L. Sibal turned back American Reed Gar Williams in the seventh and final round to finished in a four-way tie for second place in the just ended 2009 North American Open Chess Championships last December 29 at the Bally’s Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Carson, California resident Sibal, ( benefactor of GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., and US master Bart Navarro) tallied 6.0 points in seven outings, the same output of Siva Ba Narayanan, Alexander Gustafsson and Kevin Johnson. Each of them receive $2,30.

Mohammmad Yousef scored 6.5 points to captured the Under 1700 section and went home the top prize of $7,643.

ASEAN Age group gold medalist Marc Christian Nazario, meantime scored 5.5 points and joints 4^th to 8^th placers in the company of Stephen Barbre, Alex Guo, Zach Kasiurak, and John Rosell in the Under 2100 section. Nazario, along three others pockets $840 each for their effort. George Qi, Jeremy Mandelkern, and Michale Chiang shared 1^st to 3^rd placers with a total of 6.0 points each. The triumvirate received $4, 458.

In the Open section, many-time national women’s champion Women International Master Cristine Rose Mariano scored 2.0 points and finished in a tie for 77^th to 88^th placers.

Manila frequent visitor GMVaruzhan Akobian took the championships’ trophy after beating fellow 5.5 pointers GMs Alexander Shabalov, Victor Mikhalevski, Joshua Friedel and Alex Yermolinsky in the tie break points.Each of them received $3, 950.

Cebuano GM candidate Enrico “Ikong” Sevillano, GM elect Rogelio “Banjo” Barcenilla , IMs Ricardo “Ricky” de Guzman and Angelo Young failed to participate in this year’s edition.

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO