Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Chess: =?UNKNOWN?Q?Ra=F1ola?= unbeaten in four rounds

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Chess: =?UNKNOWN?Q?Ra=F1ola?= unbeaten in four rounds

    ABS CBN News, Philippines
    July 18 2004

    Raņola unbeaten in four rounds

    By Manny Benitez
    TODAY Chess Columnist


    Filipino National Master (NM) Yves Raņola defeated Spanish NM Jose
    Luis Ramon Perez in the third round and drew with Cuban International
    Master (IM) Yuri Gonzales in the fourth to tie for second to 11th
    places with 10 others in the Balaguer International Open chess
    tournament in Spain.

    In first place was Grandmaster Karen Movzsizsian of Armenia, who had
    a perfect 4.0 points.

    IM Jayson Gonzales, however, settled for two straight draws, while IM
    Ronald Bancod had a win and a loss in the third and fourth rounds.
    Both had 3.0 points to stay half a point behind the runners-up.

    Both Raņola, who is campaigning for his third and final IM norm, and
    Gonzales remained unbeaten after four rounds.

    The Tai Yuan Grandmasters chess tournament, meanwhile, got off to a
    flying start for Alexey Dreev of Russia and Nigel Short of England,
    who both won their first assignments, with White against Chinese GMs
    Ye Jiangchuan and Xu Jun, respectively, over the weekend.

    Three other first-round games in the 10-player event ended in draws
    -- Bu Xiangzhi vs Zhang Zhong, both of China, in 31 moves of an
    English Symmetrical duel; Smbat Lputian of Armenia vs Xie Jun,
    China's former world women's champion; and Ni Hua of China vs Joel
    Lautier of France.

    Dreev beat Ye in 49 moves of a King's Indian, Saemisch variation,
    while Short taught former Asian continental champion Xu a lesson in
    55 moves of a Sicilian Najdorf.

    Meanwhile, defending champion Alexander Morozevich of Russia is the
    odds-on favorite to win the Biel Grandmasters Tournament, which gets
    under way in the Swiss city on Monday (Tuesday in Manila).

    Another favorite is past world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. The other
    players in the super event are Etienne Bacrot of France, Krishnan
    Sasikiran of India, Luke McShane of England and Yannick Pelletier of
    Switzerland.

    The GM contest is part of the celebration of the annual chess
    festival in Biel city, also known in the predominately
    French-speaking Swiss canton as Bienne.

    In Tuguegarao, Manila bets Froilan Bolico III and Michael Adarlo
    zeroed in on the top two North Luzon leg berths by posting their
    fifth straight victories in the Shell National Youth Active
    Championships.

    The top-seeded Bolico trounced Baguio City's Alex Siblagan, while
    Adarlo beat another Manila player, Carl Espallardo, to emerge the
    only unbeaten players in the juniors (20-under) division of the
    two-category tournament.
Working...
X