Garcia draws chess match, ends in top 10

MANILA, Philippines - International Master Jan Emmanuel Garcia drew with untitled Chinese Dai Changren in 25 moves of a Ruy Lopez in the ninth and final round to come through with a solid top 10 finish in the 17th Bangkok Chess Open in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday.

Playing black, Garcia, who downed Mongolian Woman Grandmaster Altan Ulzii Enkhtuul in the penultimate round the day before, forced a series of minor piece exchanges to eke out the draw that secured his place in the top 10 with 6.5 points.

Garcia will also finish as one of the best Filipino performers in the nine-round tournament topped by former World Challenger GM Nigel Short of England, who split the point with Russian GM Ivan Rozum in 18 moves of a Caro-kann Defense with 7.5 points.

It was an impressive effort for Garcia, who wound up unbeaten by winning four matches and drawing five including a pair against GMs Aleksey Goganov of Russia and Niclas Huschenbeth of Germany in the sixth and seventh round, respectively.

Interestingly, the Filipino chesser ended up with the same points as Chinese GM Wang Hao, the top seed here with a FIDE rating of 2690 as against the former’s measly 2429 rating.

Wang settled for a quick standoff with Indian IM Sharma Himanshu.

At press time, only John Marvin Miciano, who currently owns 5.5 points after eight rounds, had a chance to match Garcia’s output if he could hurdle Chinese Mun Ke.