Dableo tops Asian Zonal, earns berth to world tiff

An IM title, a GM result and the Asian Zonal crown. Not bad for a naïve 24-year-old player whose previous goal was just to become the country’s newest international master.

Now, he will even represent the country to this year’s Men’s World Championship.

Newly-minted IM Ronald Dableo capped his amazing campaign in the Asian Zonal by trouncing Indon Fide Master Sadikin Irwanto in their English game Sunday morning in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to top the event he never imagined he would ever win.

That he did the feat coming off a stinging loss to compatriot GM Joey Antonio in the penultimate round Friday spoke well of the resiliency of the 24-year-old player who outplayed Irwanto after 44 moves to close out with seven points on six wins and two draws.

That was half-a-point over the tandem of Antonio and GM-candidate Mark Paragua, who wound up tied for second at 6.5 points after contrasting results in the final round of the nine-round Swiss system event of the 3.2a Championships.

Two Filipinos actually made it to the world reunification championship slated this November with Antonio and Paragua battling for the other berth in a two-game rapid chess playoff at presstime.

But the day, and the tournament, truly belonged to Dableo.

With the luck of the draw on his side, the only untitled Filipino bet in a five-man delegation held his ground against some of the fancied players in the fold in the early going then launched his more serious bid for the crown with a stunning victory over top seed GM Wu Shaobin in the fourth round.

A draw with roommate Paragua in the next momentarily stalled his surge but Dableo resumed his winning spree again by demolishing a couple of youthful Vietnamese players in the next two rounds to wrest the solo lead.

That enabled him to achieve his cherished goal — the IM title — but just as he thought things were going his way, Dableo got ambushed by Antonio in the eighth round and in a flash, the specter of losing the title and missing a rare stint in the world tilt altogether streaked to his mind.

But he stayed focused in the final game, never giving Irwanto a chance for counterplay as Dableo, playing white, dictated the tempo en route to annexing the all-important victory.

Meanwhile, Arianne Caoili, slowed down by a loss in the eighth round, settled for a draw and finished tied for fourth in women’s play with 5.5 points. Top seed An Thi Thanh Nguyen ruled the event with seven points.