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A day after losing a drawish end game to Weiqi Zhou of China, Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So bounced back in contention by demolishing Haoxiang Jia of China after the six rounds in the $40,000-Philippine Open international chess championship at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center late Saturday.
With the win, So is now tied for fourth to seventh places with compatriot National Master (NM) Rolando Nolte, top seed Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia
Weiqi, on the other hand, remains on top with a masterful win over Megaranto with 5.5 points on account of five wins and one draw.
Li bounced back from a sorry loss to Megaranto in the fifth round as he whipped GM-candidate Julio Catalino Sadorra in the following round to share second to third places with GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam with five points.
Le, one of the three Vietnamese seeing action in this 76-player, six-nation championship, subdued GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. in another marquee match watched by a sizable weekend crowd, which included National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero “Butch” Pichay.
So, the reigning Dubai Open champion, and NM Rolando Nolte are the highest-placed Filipinos with 4.5 points in the tough, 11-round tournament organized by the NCFP and sponsored by the Department of Tourism and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.
Nolte continued his surprisingly strong showing when he halved a point with Maghami.
In the all-female encounter, national women's champion Cristy Bernales trounced Woman International Master (WIM) Irine Sukandar of Indonesia and Catherine Perena beat Kimberly Jane Cunanan.
In other notable sixth-round results, International Master (IM) John Paul Gomez overpowered Efren bagamasbad, IM Ronald Bancod dumped Arlan Cabe, Xu Deshun of China downed Reggie Olay, IM Salor Sitanggang outplayed Rustum Tolentino, NM Adrian Pacis stopped Haridas Pascua, Fernandito Pialan repulsed Hamed Nouri, and Aices Salvador toppled IM Aung Aung of Myanmar.
