Young Pinays shine in Asian youth chess

SUBIC, Philippines  – The future is bright for Philippine chess – even in the girls division.

Marie Antoinette San Diego continued her smashing performance in the girls 12-and-under category in the 2011 Asian Youth chess championships at the Subic Bay Travelers Hotel here.

San Diego, who bagged the gold medal in the ASEAN Primary Schools Sports Olympiad ( APSSO) held in Jakarta, Indonesia last November, pulled the rug from under third seed Sagar Tejaswini of India in the sixth round to raise her score to 5.5 points on five wins and one draw in the nine-round competition hosted by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.

The multi-awarded campaigner from Dasmariñas, Cavite remains half a point ahead of two-time world under-8 champion Maria Ivana Furtado of India with still three rounds remaining.

Another Filipina campaigner, Samantha Glo Revita, drew with Nilufar Yagubbayeva of Uzbekistan.