APAYAO LADY CHESS MASTER SCORES FIRST POINT IN WORLD JUNIOR CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS

October 15, 2022 Provincial

Apayao pride Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian finally registered her first win, while male counterpart Alekhine Nouri could only muster two draws as the Philippine contingents have one point each after three days at the World Junior Chess Championships in Sardinia, Italy Friday here. Sebastian (Elo rating 1868) defeated Pilar Silvera of Uruguay for her first point in the tournament and improve to 53.

She started the tournament at 44th spot and fell to Woman FIDE Master Michalina Rudzinska of Poland as the 44th ranked player of 65 fell to 56th place after one round in the tournament. The Flora, Apayao native
next faced a much lighter foe in Dimitra Lydia Danilidi (Elo 1498) of Greece in round 2 who lost to WFM Luisa Bashylina (Elo 2073) of Germany in the opener in the 11 round tournament that drew nearly 200 players all over the world in 11 rounds of action.

Thirty of the players won their games in the opening round of the Women Under 20 with top seed International Master Nurguyl Salimova (Elo2415) leading the way after beating Indonesian WFM Diajeng Theresa Singgih (Elo 1991).The top seed next faces Kazakhstan’s Nazerke Nurgali (Elo 2169) who was upset by an unrated Singaporean, Durga Saravanan (Elo 1736). The two settled for a draw, then the top
seed defeated French Estee Aubert and prevailed for her 2.5 points total which is the seventh best in the 66 female Under 20 competition.

WIM Menuert Kamalidenova of Kazakhstan (Elo 2376) now paces the field with a perfect three points in tie with Russian FM Ekaterina Goltseva (Elo 2300) and Ukranian Yelyzaveta Hrebenschykova (Elo 2268) and Azerbaijian Govhar Beydullayeva (Elo 2356). Meanwhile, the FIDE Master Nouri (Elo 2251) drew with Austrian GM Felix Blohberger (Elo 2493) who was ranked 19th at the start of the games. The Austrian dropped to 54th spot after the draw with Nouri who moved up 64th in the open side which drew 120 players.

Losing Thursday, the reigning national juniors champion tumbled to in tie at 87th place along with three
others. Nouri bounced back with a draw on the third round halving the point with Israel’s Yegor Strolyarsky (Elo 1987) as he further slipped in the standing at 90th. Russian top seed GM Andrey Esipenko, now playing under FIDE, opened his bid for the crown as he beat Mexican IM Sion Radamantys Galaviz Medina (Elo 2345). He followed up with a win over IM GB Harshavardhan (Elo 2433) before meeting a hiccup by drawing with Vignir Vatnar Steffanson (Elo 2471) of Iceland to slip down the leaderboard at sixth.

He next faces IM Tsevetan Stoyanov (Elo 2449) of Bulgaria. Ukranian IM Ihor Samunenkov (Elo 2473) now
paces the 125 player Open division with three victories along with five others – third seed Svane Frederik, Elo 2566, of Germany; Hungarian GM Adam Kozak (Elo 2516), Georgian IM Nikolozi Kacharava (Elo 2512) and Azebarjian IM Abdulla Gadimbayli (Elo 2499). Second seed GM Arsenly Nesterov (Elo 2567) also of Russia but playing under FIDE drew his opening game and fell to number 61. It was Uzbekh
Mukhammadali Abdurakhmonov (Elo 2345) who salvaged the draw against the Russian GM.

After beating FIDE MasterRoy Vagmar of Israel on day two, the Russian settled for a draw against IM Vupalla Praneeth (Elo 2451) of India for two points total which is good in tie with 24th place. The tournament will be played until October 22 even as Sebastian looks forward to several other international
tournaments before the end of the year, said father Jerzon including the University Athletic Association of the Philippines where she plays under the Far Eastern University – Senior High School team next month, a tournament in Bangkok, Thailand “I believe and in Tagaytay.

Pigeon Lobien