Sunday, May 29, 2011

Youth power

If my calculation is right ( how I hope so), the Philippines will have a new International Master when Zone 3.3 Open Chess Championships ends today in Tagaytay City.

I'm not sure if FM Jan Emmanuel Garcia (in photo) has already met the requirements for gaining his third and final IM norm at the end of Round 8 (but I strongly believe that he already made it!)

Garcia has impressively put up a 2544 performance rating as of Round 8, more than the required 2452 for an IM norm (somebody in the know can correct me).

In addition, he has already piled up 5.5 points after Round 8, the required points when faced with opponents who have an average Elo of at least 2371. The average of Garcia's opponents stood at 2403 after Round 8. But I'm pretty sure that he will gain the final IM norm should he win his last assignment today.

I hope I'm right.

Aside from Garcia, newly crowned national junior champ NM Mari Joseph Turqueza is also smelling an IM norm with his 2449 rating performance and 4.5 point haul after Round 8! Turqueza's strong campaign is punctuated by wins over IM Liu Dede in Round 3 and over IM Halay Taufik in Round 6.

Alcon John Datu is also sensing an IM norm, with his performance rating of 2437 and score of 4.5 points after the penultimate round. His impressive performance is highlighted by his draw against GM Barus Cerdas in Round 1, a win over IM Tirto in Round 3, and a win over Kasmiran in Round 6.

Notably, 13-year-old Paulo Bersamina, the youngest player in the field, nailed a strong win against higher-rated and more experienced FM Jony Habla in Round 8 to parade a 2304 performance rating as of the penultimate round. A win in the final round could pull up more his performance rating and perhaps a chance for an IM norm. Let's see.

Mabuhay ang mga batang Pinoy!

1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

Jan Emmanuel Garcia, is our newest IM, he achieved the title via two ways actually, the first by gaining the norm (performance) in the just conclude asean zonal, he has two norms before via the Asian Continental Championship (actually he only achieved a norm, but FIDE rules that such performance is equivalent to a 20-game IM norm) hence he acquired the required 3 norms for the title and he only needed to increase his rating. The second, was by scoring 6 points in the asean zonal, which as stated in the FIDE handbook, catapult him to IM Title. BTW, because of the said rule, we can state that Alcon john datu, came half point short of the title. :(
batilsky