Bersamina hogs the spotlight at 7th Asian Continental chess tiff

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino International Master Paulo Bersamina stole the thunder from the favorites as he claimed the scalp of third seed Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam In 36 moves of a Giuoco Piano to snare a piece of the lead at the start of the 7th Asian Continental Chess Championships (2nd Manny Pacquiao Cup) at the Tiara Hotel in Makati City Monday night.

The 20-year-old Bersamina, a two-time Olympiad veteran whose FIDE rating of 2444 pales in comparison to his foe’s astronomical 2714, unleashed a brilliant queen sacrifice to force Le, a former world blitz champion who peaked as high as the top 20 in the world last year, into submission to avert a Philippine shutout.

“I just saw an opportunity and I took advantage of it. I feel good about this big win, I hope it’s a start of something big for me,” said Bersamina.

The win sent Bersamina in an early 28-chesser gridlock at the helm and will battle Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who turned back reigning ASEAN seniors champion IM Chito Garma, in the second round as of posting time.

Another Filipino, IM Haridas Pascua, also made heads turn after he came close to bringing down fourth seed GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit of India before agreeing to a draw in 36 moves of a Gruenfeld Defense as he was left with just six minutes to make four moves.

The results of Bersamina and Pascua, who had a solid debut in the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi Georgia, were the best in what was turning out a bleak opening day as all 16 other Filipinos entered in this nine-round tournament fell by the wayside.

It included GMs John Paul Gomez, Darwin Laylo and Joey Antonio, who succumbed to second seed GM Wei Yi of China, fifth pick B. Adhiban of India and No. 8 GM S. P. Sethuraman of India, respectively.

It also highlighted an upset-marred round as 19th seed GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran lost to unheralded FIDE Master Lye Lik Zang of Malaysia and top seed GM Wang Hao of China was held to a draw by Indonesian FM Yoseph Theolifus Taher.

It was the same in the women’s division as WGM Janelle Mae Frayna couldn’t extract a win against a lower-ranked Sivanesan Nithyalakshmi of Malaysia and settled for a split in this tournament supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, Sen. Manny Pacquiao and NCFP president Butch Pichay.

WFM Shania Mae Mendoza made the most noise in her class after she split the point with No. 3 IM Guo Qi of China while WIM Marie Antoinette San Diego halved the point with No. 7 WGM Vo Thi Kim of Vietnam.

WFM Cherry Ann Mejia also pulled off a minor upset as she drew with 13th pick WGM Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam.