PSC Int’l Chess: Laylo best PH bet at third
Final standing (Open Division): 9.5 points—Savchenko (Rus); 7.0—Lu (Chn), Sivuk (Ukr); 6.5—Laylo, Kotanjan (Arm), Lin (Chn); 6.0—Demchenko (Rus), Smirnov (Rus), Nguyen (Vie); 5.5—Rohan (Ind), Gupta (Ind), Deepan (Ind), Mohrov (Rus), Garcia, Puranik (Ind), Zubov (Ukr), Shomoev (Rus), Belous (Rus), Liu (Sin), Antonio; 5.0—Bitoon, Docena, Sunilduth Lyna (Ind), Sean (Ina), Nolte, Aravindh (Ind); 4.5—Dimakiling, Torre, Severino, Bersamina, Pascua, Abelgas; 4.0—Senador, Pimentel, Dela Cruz, Turqueza, Frayna, Suede; 3.5—Segarra, San Diego, Mendoza; 3.0—Fronda, Galas; 1.0—Pacis
SUBIC—Grandmaster Darwin Laylo drew his last match with Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk late Saturday to emerge as best Filipino finisher in the PSC/Puregold International Chess Challenge won by Russian GM Boris Savchenko at Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel.
Handling black, Laylo agreed to split the point with Sivuk, the Philippine International Chess Challenge winner last week, and wound up with 6.5 points, good for fourth place in the 44-player event dominated by Savchenko, who clinched the title in the ninth and penultimate round Saturday afternoon.
The 29-year-old Savchenko, the 2013 Moscow Open champion, downed top seed Indian GM Abhijeet Gupta in their board one encounter to wind up with 9.5 points out of a perfect 10 and pocket $5,000.
Chinese GM Lu Shagle was a distant second with 7.0 points over Sivuk.
Lu, the third seed, beat Russian GM Anton Shomoev to gain the tiebreak edge.
The 34-year-old Laylo, a four-time chess Olympian and two-time national champion seeded 18th here, actually tied with GM Tigran Kotanjan of Rusia and International Master Lin Chen of China, but outranked them when the tiebreak was applied. Kotanjan landed fifth and Lin sixth.
Flaunting the Russian might, GMs Anton Demchenko and Pavel Smirnov placed seventh and eighth, respectively, with 6.0 points, the same total posted by Vietnamese GM Nguyen Duc Hoa, who settled for ninth.
Indian Fide Master Ahuja Rojan landed 10th place after posting 5.5 points and completing his IM requirement like La Salle stalwart Jerad Docena.
Despite losing to Smirnov, the 17-year-oldDocena’s 5.0 points proved enough for his third and final IM result.
GM Richard Bitoon placed 21st with 5.0 points while Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre landed 28th in the 44-player Open division featuring 18 GMs.
WIMs Janelle Mae Frayna of Far Eastern U and Mikee Charlene Suede of University of the Philippines emerged the best performers among six females with 4.0 points each.
