21 December 2010, Kuala Lumpur – In the Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro, a newspaper portal of the Philippines, news of the GACC International Inter-Varsity Chess was reported.WITH its top players joggling its way on top-board battle, it's clearly now a three-way logjam among powerhouse Russia, Iran and the Philippines going to the 9th and final round of the 2010 Grand Asian Chess Championships at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In fact, Iran--represented by the Azad University--is poised to deny the Novosibirsk State Technological University (NSTU) of Russia this year's team title after scoring heavily in the seven and 8th rounds.
What even more stunning was Iran's untitled player Amin Nasri (2253), the only conqueror of Cagayan de Oro native Lennon Hart Salgados of RP's Far Eastern University, pulling the rugs from under Russia's super Grandmaster Maletin Pavel (elo 2636) in the penultimate 8th round.
And Iran's second fiddle to GM Bagheri Amir--the equally-spectacular International Master Darban Morteza zooming up to the top with 7.5 points to virtually clinch the individual men's title.
IM Morteza--who earlier held GM Pavel to a draw--bested FEU's quick-surging John Ranel Morazo in 7th and made short work of Bin Zahur Nahim in the 8th frame.
Playing white, Morteza needs just a draw against the unheralded Isuru Alahakoon in the last round to finish ahead of the fancied GMs in the 92-man field.
"Without any doubt, the Asian chessers are now getting stronger we're now a real threat to the best in the world. We're also very proud to say that while Nasri defeated GM Pavel, Nasri suffered his only loss at the hands of a Filipino and one of our FEU teammates," said Kagay-anon Christian Arroyo, referring to Morazo who made a strong head-start before losing steam in the midst of intense struggle against the big guns.
Very certainly, however, the young Filipino bets are already assured of great exposure and fruitful experience in this week-long international event as practically all of them made it to the upper notch of the final round action in both the men and women's open brackets.
Based on chess-results.com, the winner of GACC Men’s event is IM Darban Morteza (pix above) of Iran with 8.0 points, second was Nasri Amin of Iran and third place went to GM Pavel Maletin of Russia with 7.0 points.
Final round 9 results and top 40 rankings are shown below:-
Top 40 Final Rankings.
Meanwhile the women’s section was won by WGM Nebolsina Vera (pix left) of Russia. Nebolsina achieved a score of 8.0 points out of 9 rounds. Second was won by WIM Kharashuta Ekaterina of Russia, too. Kharashuta scored 7.5 points. In third place was WFM Jose Rulp Lem of the Philippines with 7.0 points.
(source of results: chess-results.com)
