Reigning national junior champion NM Darwin Laylo and unheralded NM Ernesto Absin bumped off two other top-ranked bets in the second round playoff yesterday even as former Asian Juniors champion IM Nelson Mariano II played true to form in the active format to advance in the Chess Pambansa Millennium Grand Prix at the PNB Financial Center in Pasay.
Laylo, the 19-year-old bet from Marikina, proved sharper than NM Yves Rañola in active chess as he swept the sixth-ranked bet in their best-of-two, 30-minute duel, the first a 26-move win before capping the 3-1 victory with a 36-move triumph, both via Sicilian defense.
Rañola thus became the second highest ranked player booted out of race for the P1 million top purse after top seed GM Eugene Torre lost in the first round to untitled Oliver Dimakiling, who, incidentally, bowed out in the second round.
Absin, a talented but often overshadowed campaigner from Butuan City, upended eighth-seed NM Jayson Gonzalez of Caloocan City as he claimed a 2.5-1.5 victory behind a draw and a win.
But it was Mariano, a noted active chess player, who outshone the rest of the 20 players forced to dispute the berths in the round of 32 via playoff as the Makati City-sponsored bet blanked NM Dennis Gutierrez for a 3-1 win.
Untitled Ernesto Fernandez and qualifier Jasper Rom pulled off big victories late in the day with the former, ranked 92nd here, thumping 28th-ranked NM Ronald Bancod with a sweep of their second playoff match for a 4-2 win, and the latter stunning NM Nicomedes Alisangco, 5-4, in a do-or-die after halving the first three playoff matches.
Rom, a 27-year-old bet from Danao City, became the lone survivor among six differently-abled chessers sponsored by the Social Security System through Philippine Chess Federation chairman Arturo Borjal in this event sponsored by Real Bank, DILG and PNB and held under the auspices of the PCF.
Others who advanced were 12th ranked NM Chito Garma, veteran NM Efren Bagamasbad, NM Edwin Tan, NM Arlan Cabe, and NM Roger Verganio, a protege of Misamis Oriental Gov. Antonio Calingin, who beat Jan Asor.