Daniel Quizon brilliant in Asian chess

MANILA, Philippines — International Master Daniel Quizon shocked Chinese Grandmaster Wan Yunguo in the final round to emerge the best-placed Filipino at 16th in the blitz side event of the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Xingtai, China Saturday.

Quizon pooled 5.5 points and shared 14th place with four others. The 15-year-old rising star eventually ended up 16th after the tiebreaks.

IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia wound up with five points while IM Paulo Bersamina and GM Darwin Laylo scored four points each. GM Eugene Torre finished with three points.

Quizon actually toppled three GMs in the event, including Wan, Liu Yan of China and Venkataraman Karthik of India, while splitting the point with GMs Prasanna Vishnu of India and Laylo to finish with a superb 2525 performance rating.

With a current FIDE blitz rating of 2042, Quizon earned a whopping 88.4 points for his remarkable performance.

Quizon actually came into the event reeling from a mediocre showing in the main event of the tournament where he finished with just 3.5 points.

Quizon boosted his stock by posting big wins recently, upstaging the likes of Torre, GM Joey Antonio, IM John Marvin Miciano and reigning national juniors’ titlist Jeth Romy Morado.

He also came half-a-point away from obtaining his second GM result but fell short of his drive, settling for a top 20 finish in the HD Bank event in Vietnam last March.

Woman FIDE Master Shania Mae Mendoza lost to Vietnamese IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen to end up 15h with 4.5 points.