Three Pinoys cop gold in Asian Schools chess

MANILA, Philippines - Al-Basher Buto bucked a slight fever and bested the field to claim the gold medal in the Under-7 Rapid bracket of the 13th Asian Schools Chess Championship in Panjin, China recently.

Buto, whose father hails from Marawi, swept his seven matches to dominate the event, winning by two points over Chinese Chen Zhiyuan and Indonesian Kunal Patil Aditya, who settled for silver and bronze medals, respectively.

The 26-player field drew nine players from China and four each from India and Mongolia.

WFM Allaney Jia Doroy also posted a seven-game sweep to clinch the gold in the U-17 girls Rapid division of the event, beating Men JiaYi of China. Samantha Edithso of Indonesia took the bronze.

Jerlyn Mae San Diego, on the other hand, topped the U-13 side with six points, edging Nanjid Tsogzolmaa of Mongolia by half-a-point for the gold. Yuliya Khegay of Uzbekistan scored 4.5 points for third.

Three other Filipinos fell short of their gold medal bid with Kylen Joy Mordido losing in the tiebreak and settling for silver in the U-15 Girls with six points.

Daniel Quizon and CM Stephen Rome Pangilinan also scored six points apiece but both fell half-a-point behind Wang Zideng of China and CM Catur Adi Sagita in the U-13 and U-17 Rapid events, respectively.