Laylo makes it to Olympiad team

TAGAYTAY – National Master Darwin Laylo forced a quick 15-move draw with fancied IM Jayson Gonzales to virtually put a lock on one of the three berths in the national team competing in next month’s Chess Olympiad in Spain.

The draw gave Laylo 11 points heading into the last two rounds of the National Chess Championships, where the top three finishers after the round-robin series among 18 players will join seeded GMs Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio and Mark Paragua in the squad seeing action in the Olympiad set Oct. 14-31 in Majorca, Spain.

IM Chito Garma likewise boosted his bid with a resounding win over NM Mirabeau Maga where he essayed a 26-move victory in their King’s Indian Attack game. A two-time Olympiad veteran, Garma thus caught NM Emmanuel Senador at second with 10.5 points.

Senador halved the point with NM Oliver Barbosa after 44 moves of a Scandinavian game.

Gonzales, earlier fancied to clinch one of the berths, was stalled at 10 points, needing to sweep his last two games to gain stint in the Olympiad. He plays Garma in the penultimate round.

Senador will have reigning Asian Zonal champion IM Ronald Dableo and Laylo as his last two opponents.

FIDE Master Fernie Donguines and IM Petronio Roca, meawhile, stayed in the hunt with a pair of victories over FM Jesse Noel Sales and NM Rolando Nolte, respectively, with Donguines tying Barbosa at fifth place with 9.5 points and Roca moving to sixth place with nine points.

A tie for third will be resolved by playoff. In case of a three-way tie for second, the player with the highest tiebreak will advance while the other two will contest the last slot. A four-way tie will forge a round robin among the three players with lower tiebreak points.

Meanwhile, Wesley So, out of it all with a string of setbacks in the middle rounds, shocked Dableo in 59 moves of their French game to notch his sixth point for 12th place.

In women’s play, WFM Sheerie Joy Lomibao inched closer to the title with a draw with WNM Christine Castellano in 41 moves of Sicilian to hike her output to 7.5 points, 1.5 points ahead of WIM Beverly Mendoza and WNM Aices Salvador.

Mendoza beat WNM Carmelita Alvarez in 54 moves of a Dutch while Salvador trounced WNM Kathryn Ann Cruz in 57 moves of a Pirc to share second place with six points.

In other games, WIM Cristine Rose Mariano rolled to her fourth win in a row, beating Loreshyl Cuizon after 60 moves of English for joint fourth with WNM Carmelita Abanes with 5.5 points. Abanes whipped Daisy Rivera after 68 moves of English Opening.