Barbosa stuns GM in Moscow Open

MANILA, Philippines - Oliver Barbosa shocked GM Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan in a crucial eighth round encounter to move within striking distance of the leaders in the Moscow Open Chess Championship at the Russia State Social University in Moscow Saturday.

The win was Barbosa’s third straight as he improved to 6.5 points, just half-a-point behind GM Nikolai Kabanov of Russia, GM Zhou Weiqi of China, IM Igor Kovalenko of Ukraine, GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan and untitled Vladimir Belous of Russia.

Barbosa surprised the higher-rated and more-experienced Kotsur with precise moves after the latter sacrificed a knight to gain the initiative, pulling off a 42-move victory in their Caro-Kann encounter.

When the end came, Barbosa had two rooks and two pawns against Kotsur’s bishop, rook and two pawns. The Filipino, however, wisely forced an exchange of rooks and threatened to marshall his connected pawns Kotsur resigned. 

Barbosa takes on No. 11 seed GM Sergey Volkov of Russia in the final round.

Meanwhile, GM John Paul Gomez failed to pounce on No. 76 seed IM Vladimir Hamitevici of Moldova and settled for another draw for six points.