San Diego sets pace; Garcia ties Indian

MANILA, Philippines - Jan Emmanuel Garcia defeated Dave Patrick Dulay to gain a share of the lead with Antonio Viani D’ Cunha of India in the boys’ 16 under class while Marie Antoinette San Diego held two-time world under 8 champion Ivana Maria Furtado to a draw to stay in control in the girls’ 12-under side halfway through Asian Youth chess championships in Subic late Tuesday.

The win hiked Garcia’s output to 4.5 points to tie the fourth seeded D’ Cunha in the lead.

San Diego, on the other hand, held her own against Furtado to likewise improve to 4.5 points after five rounds of play.

The Dasmariñas, Cavite-based San Diego is half point ahead of Furtado, Bakhora Abdussattorova of Uzbekistan and Sagar Tejaswini of India heading to the last four rounds of the tournament.

Prince Mark Aquino, meanwhile, drew with Rajpara Ankit of India, while Haridas Pascua split the point with compatriot Alcon John Datu to remain in the hunt in the centerpiece boys’ 18 under category.

Aquino, Pascua and Datu improved to three points, one point behind Indians G.A. Stany and Das Debashis and half a point behind Uzbek Jahongir Vakhidov.

In the girls 18 under, Jan Jodilyn Fronda outplayed Rathinavelu Visalatchi of India and Mikee Charlene Suede bested Bayar Anu of Mongolia to raise their outputs to three points, the same score of World Youth veteran Cheradee Camacho, held to a draw by Jayakumar Sarariya of India.

The three Filipina bets, however, stood two points behind frontrunner Rucha Pujari of India.