San Diego shares Asian Youth lead

MANILA, Philippines - Jerlyn Mae San Diego toppled Patil Bhagyashree Pravin of India to stay unbeaten after three rounds of the Asian Youth Chess Championships in Sari, Iran over the weekend.

San Diego’s sterling start put her alongside Deshmukh Divya Jitendra, also of India, on top of the girls’ 8-and-under category of the annual event featuring the region’s leading players.

Seven-year-old Alekhine Nouri, the world’s youngest Fide Master, subdued Shabani Amin of Iran in the third round but fell to China’s Gao Yuheng in the fourth for two points in the Open 8-and-under category.

In the Open 18-and-under class, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia and FM Paolo Bersamina drew their respective matches with the former, playing out of Adamson, halving the point with Le Tuan Minh of Vietnam to force a three-way tie for first at 2.5 points with Le and Ma Zhonghan of China, who beat Uzbek Sattarov Bobir.

Bersamina also halved the point with Koushik Girish Arun of India in the third round and Asgarizadeh Ahmad of Iran in the fourth for joint second with Ahmad, Das Savantan of India and Lu Chan Hugn of Vietnam with three points in the Open 16-and-under division.

Koushik Girish Arun of India shows the way with 3.5 points.

Woman Fide Master Marie Antoinette San Diego outclassed Atabayeva Gozel of Turkmenistan to notch her second point in three games in the girls’ 18-and-under category.

Ella Grace Moulic of Davao City bounced back from back-to-back setbacks as she crushed Sydykova Akylai of Kyrgyzstan and Narzikulova Gulkhayo of Uzbekistan in the next two rounds of the girls’ 16-and-under division.