Antonio outwits em ’all, bags Asian Srs. crown

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Joey Antonio showed his mastery of “online chess” as he blew away the competition to crown himself champion of the First Asian Seniors Championship Tuesday night.

Living up to his reputation as the Ironman of the online game, Antonio, a 58-year-old grandmaster, scored 7.5 points out of the possible nine and won by a full point over second placer, fourth seed GM Tair Vahidov of Uzbekistan.

Tied for first with countryman International Master Ricky de Guzman after the fifth round with 4.5 points apiece, Antonio gained a big headway when he won his next two games while the latter lost three straight.

Antonio, a 13-time national champion and 10-time Olympian, then split the point with Uzbek GMs, third seed Alexei Barsov and top pick Saidali Iuldachev, in the seventh and eighth round, respectively, before crushing a lowly Nassir Wajih of India in the last round to nail the title.

It was a victory that further boosted the confidence of the Calapan, Oriental Mindoro native set to compete for the Philippine team in the first FIDE Online Olympiad that started yesterday.

De Guzman, who topped the Zone 3.3 eliminations ahead of National Master Rudy Ibanez and Antonio last week, blew his title chances with three defeats in row from the sixth to the eighth round.

He clobbered Jamal Md. Mohsin of Bangladesh in the final round to preserve a fourth-place finish with 5.5 points.