Sadorra gets share of 2nd place in Asian Continental Chess tiff

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster Julio Catalino Sadorra downed Chinese Zhang Ziji in 37 moves of a Gruenfeld duel to zoom to a share of second with 10 others and behind solo leader GM Wang Hao of China after four rounds of the Asian Continental Chess Championships in Chengdu, China Monday night.

Playing black, the United States-based Sadorra, 30, punished Zhang for the latter's opening misadventures and slowly equalized, took the initiative and built an attack centered on the queenside passed pawn that the former easily translated into victory.

Sadorra, the country's top board player in the last two World Olympiad editions, now has three points, or just half a point behind No. 1 Wang, who waylaid Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo to jump to the top, with 3.5 points.

Also bunched with Sadorra at No. 2 were GMs Santosh Gujrathi Vidit, Chithambaram Aravindh, Deep Sengupta and S.P. Sethuraman of India, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan, Bai Jinshi of China, Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa of Mongolia.

Sadorra was playing Jumabayev in the fifth round as of press time and going for the win that will push him closer to clinching one of the five slots in the World Chess Cup set Sept. 1-25 in Batumi/Tbilisi, Georgia.

In other results by Phl bets, GMs John Paul Gomez and Jayson Gonzales split the point to hike thier total to two points while International Master Paulo Bersamina lost to Chinese GM Wen Yang to remain with 1.5 points.

Woman FIDE Master Shania Mae Mendoza continued his big winning ways as she stunned WIM Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya of Mongolia to jump into a share of 11th to 19th spots with 2.5 points.

Vietnamese IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen and WIM Vo Thi Kim Phung lead the tournament with four and 3.5 points, respectively.

It was Mendoza's second straight win after she brought down Chinese WGM Liu Shilan in he third round the day before.

Mendoza was playing Uzbek WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova in the fifth round at press time.

WGM Janelle Mae Frayna drew with WIM Akter Shamima to improve to 1.5 points.