Quizon wins 4 straight to seize lead in Vietnam chess tilt

MANILA, Philippines – International Master Daniel Quizon racked up four straight wins to zoom to the lead after six rounds of the first of two groups of the second and last leg of the Hanoi Grandmaster Chess Tournament in Vietnam Saturday.

Slowed down by a loss and a draw in the first two rounds, the 20-year-old Olympiad-bound Filipino woke up from deep slumber by stringing together wins over Saxena Apaar and FIDE Masters Ethan Vaz and Singh Walia Namitbir of India and IM Dao Minh Nhat of Vietnam that catapulted him straight to the top with 4.5 points.

The World Cup veteran was half a point away from a three-player pack consisting of Vaz, Vietnamese FM Banh Gia Huy and Bangladeshi IM Fahad Rahman Mohammad with four points each.

Quizon was battling second GM Nguyen Anh Dung in the seventh round at press time and will have two more GMs on his plate in the former’s last two outings — top seed GM Vojtech Plat of the Czech Republic and GM Bui Vinh of Vietnam.

The Dasmarinas bet was coming off a solid effort in the first leg just a few days back when he ended up tied for first with Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh with six points apiece before dropping to second due to an inferior tiebreak score.

Filipinos IM Michael Concio, Jr. and GM Darwin Laylo were entered in the second bracket but were running only seventh and eighth out of 10 participants with three and 2.5 points, respectively.