So loses in 4th rd, World Cup chances wane

THIRD-SEEDED Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So (2667) lost his 4th round match against Indian GM Adhiban B (2543) using black in Thursday’s fourth round of the 10th Asian Continental Individual Chess Championships at the Hotel Pardisan in Mashhad, Iran.

The stinging loss dropped So to a share of 21st to 34th spots with 2.0 points alongside compatriots GMs Mark Paragua (2542) and John Paul Gomez (2538).

Paragua, the 2003 Southeast Asian Games most bemedalled athlete, drew his 4th-round match with GM Anuar Ismagambetov (2500) of Kazakshtan using the black pieces while Gomez also split the point with IM Das Debashis (2392) of India using white.

IM Oliver Barbosa (2506), meantime, defeated FM Al-Ali Hussein Ali Hussein (2394) of Iraq to raise his total 2.5 points, the same output of countryman GM Darwin Laylo (2516), who settled for a draw with GM Zhao Jun (2574) of China.

Barbosa and Laylo are now tied for 8th to 20th place.

Meanwhile, GM Yu Yangyi (2646) of China beat FM Amirreza Pourramezanali (2330) of Iran to gain a share of the lead with over-night solo leader and countryman GM Bu Xiangzhi (2662), who was held to a draw with GM Pentala Harikrishna (2666) of India. Yu and Bu, both tallied 3.5 points apiece in this nine-round competition held to determine the region’s four representatives to the 2011 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia later this year.

In the fifth round, Laylo will take on top seed GM Rustan Kasimdhanov (2685) of Uzbekistan, Barbosa will battle Zhao, Gomez will meet Wang Chen (2436) of China, Paragua will battle IM Alavi Sayed Javad (2428) of Iran while So will square off with IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi(2495) of India.

China and India have the most number of entries with 12 players each, while host Iran has 10. The Philippines has five players, followed by Vietnam with three, Kazakhstan with two and Chinese-Taipei, Indonesia, Iraq, Syria, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with one each.

Of the 50 participants, 28 are GMs with 10 IMs.