Sports: Short Captures Bangkok Chess Title; Severino Places 15th
British Grand Master Nigel Short of England finally captured the title at the 12th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2012 in Thailand yesterday after scoring 8.0 points in 9 rounds while Negrense FIDE Master Sander Severino of Silay City placed 15th out of 135 players, a best finish for the Philippines.
GM Short’s last game against International Master Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietname ended in a draw. But despite the result, IM Vietnamese’s outstanding performance earned him a GM norm and a 3rd place finish with 7.0 points.
FM Severino, meanwhile, has also ended his last game in a draw against reigning woman world champion, 16 years-old GM Hou Yifan of China. They both finished with 6.0 points apiece but GM Yifan placed a ladder ahead than the Negrense Master.
A Silaynon native, Severino had a good start in the tournament by beating Xu Fei of China and Jon Eriksson of Finland while he held English GM Short in a draw.
In round 4, he lost to last year’s champion GM Jan Gustafsson of Germany but bounced back against FM Van Rijn Wouter of Netherlands in the next round. But Severino lost again in the 6th round to another German GM in Gerhard Schebler before posting two consecutive wins against Ralf Steinbrecht of Germany and Thu Sie of Myanmar.
On the other hand, teammate PO1 Ernie Abanco of Bacolod City settled at No. 62 after finishing with 4.5 points.
PO1 Abanco, likewise, had a good start with a pair of wins against Alain Soyeur of France and FM Trisa-Ard Nakorn of Thailand. However, he failed twice in his next matches against IM Martin Voigt of Germandy and IM Naing Myo of Myanmar.
After he gathered his act together, Abanco won his next two games against Thanati-panonda Thotsaporn of Thailand and Anasrullah of Indonesia to post 4.0 points after round 6.
Yet, the next few rounds would prove too difficult for Abanco as he fell short when he ended round 7 in a draw against Thu Sie of Myanmar then losing his last two games against FM Wisuwat Teerapabpaisit of Thailand and FM Julien Lamorelle of France.
Severino and Abanco’s Thailand stint are bankrolled by sponsors First Community Bank, Inc., Antonio Ivan S. Aguirre and Eugenio V. Villanueva, Jr. Foundation.
The team was composed of team manager Marvin Ting, Severino with his father Saul, and Abanco. They are expected to arrive at the Bacolod-Silay International Airport today.*
