Severino, Caoili hang on

BAGAC, Bataan – Sander Severino of Negros Occidental and Fil-Australian Arianne Bo Caoili continued to dominate their class Thursday night in the Asian Continental Under-16 Chess Championships here at the National Power Corporation Training Center.

Severino beat National Master Oliver Barbosa in 48 moves of a Center-Counter game to deposit a total of 3.5 points and maintain his share of the lead with Vietnamese Tranh Anh Tri. Barbosa now drops to joint third (3.0 points) in a tie with Julio Catalino Sadorra, Bernard Templo, top seed Susanto Megaranto and ASEAN U-14 champ Luke Leong.

In women’s play, Caoili also went for a smooth-sailing fourth round game against Davao’s Rowela Acedo via 46 moves of a Slav.According to chess analysis, if Acedo did not miss the Queen retreat in the middle game, she would have given Caoili a tougher time.

The former World Rapid Under-12 chess champion remains unbeaten after four rounds in the 9-round Swiss System battle organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.

A full point behind Caoili is top seed Dinara T––– of Kazakhstan (3.0) points. She dismantled the Nimzo-Indian Defense of Mongolia’s Enkhbaatar Enkhjargal in 78 moves to take solo second.

Loreshyl Cuizon, Le Thanh Tu, Michelle Seto, Enkhja gat and Acedo are in joint third with 2.5 points each. Cuizon drew with S– while Le tasted victory over Ma. Zayrah de la Cruz.