Young PH chessers bare fangs in Asean tilt

SINACABAN, Misamis Occidental — As foreign rivals continue to occupy the leaderboards, the troika of  Michael Concio Jr, Paulo Bersamina and Jan Emmanuel Garcia all won their sixth round matches on Saturday morning to give life to the host country's struggle in men's section of the 7th Asean Individual Chess Championships at the AMORAP Adventure Park here. This as Woman International Master Marie Antoinette San Diego, who led the women's side after five rounds, absorbed her first setback at the hands of new pacesetter WIM Shakira Devi Herfesa of India. Grandmaster Nguyen Duck Hoa of Vietnam and International Master Erdene Baasansuren of Mongolia, meanwhile, drew their top board duel in a Queen's Pawn Game to share the men's lead with Indian IM Shrivatri Anuj  and IM Ameya Audi at 4.5 points each. Anuj defeated Filipino FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri on board 2, while Audi overpowered his compatriot IM Bala Chandra Prasad Dhulipalla on board 3. Both Concio and Bersamina up their output to 4 points after separate wins over IM Nguyen Quoc Hy of Vietnam and IM Miroslav Vlasenko of the Federation. Garcia, on the other hand, whipped FM Zhuo Ren Lim of Malaysia to improve to 3.5 points alongside Filipino IM and now US citizen Joel Banawa who crushed Mongolian...