MANILA, Philippines — To become a chess Grandmaster, one has to beat one in consistency.
And a mercurial Daniel Quizon did just that over the weekend when he ended up tied for first in the super-strong 30th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival in the United Arab Emirates.
The 20-year-old, Olympiad-bound Filipino International Master caught four GMs including 10th seed Sunilduth Lyna Narayana of India whom the former slew in 51 moves of a slam bang King’s Indian showdown that catapulted him to a six-player tie at No. 1 with seven points.
While Quizon eventually wound up sixth after tiebreaks were applied, somehow the feeling was the reigning Philippine champion striking gold as he wound up with a performance rating equal to super-GM level – 2749.
Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev took first while GM David Paravyan of FIDE, Uzbek GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca and top seed Iranian GM M. Amin Tabatabaei were second to fifth, respectively.
In all, Quizon faced six GMs, won against four and lost against two, a performance that earned him 33.3 points and shoved him to 2490.3 from 2457 more than a week ago, around 10 away from touching the 2500 level and claiming an automatic GM title.