International Master (IM) Jan Emmanuel Garcia lived up to his top billing on Wednesday, after halving the point with Ganesan Akash of India in the sixth and penultimate round and beating Eiti Bashir of Syria in the seventh and final round to become the Philippines double gold medalist and put a dent on India’s dominance in the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2013 in Sari, Iran. The Manila resident Garcia, top player of Ateneo de Manila University notched a total of 6.5 points on six wins and a draw in seven outings in ruling the open under-18 category, Blitz chess competition.
According to Asian Chess Federation deputy vice president Casto “Toti” Abundo, for 16 players and fewer, they applied Seven rounds Swiss-System. “Masyado pong mabigat ang field na sumali dito kasama na ang pag-dagsa ng stong Indian contingent, China at former Russian Republics na bansa gaya ng Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan at Kyrgyzstan” the 2011 Subic Asian Youth gold medallist Garcia informed the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) under the leadership of it’s chairman/president Prospero “Butch” Pichay Jr. and secretary-general Cavite 7th district rep. Abraham “Bambol” Tolentino Jr. Patil Pratik Pravin of India subdued Ismailov Mukhit of Kazakhstan to score 5.5 points and settled for silver medal. Le Tuan Minh of Vietnam defeated Ganesan Akash of India to score 5.0 points and went home with the bronze medal.
It was the second gold medal for the Philippines’ brightest hop Garcia, who also topped the Standard competition after edging Ma Zhonghan of China in a tie break points. Other Filipinos who delivered with bronze medals were Fide Master Paulo Bersamina of Pasay City in the open under-16 and Daryl Unix Samantila of Tonsuya, Malabon in the open under-14.
Bersamina split the point with Das Sayantan of India to climb to 4.5 points, 1.5 points behind gold medalist Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam (6.0 points) and silver medalist Das (5.0 points). (Philboxing.com)
