GENERAL SANTOS City ― Indonesian Fide Master Arif Abdul Hafiz could be the biggest deal among foreign rivals competing in the ongoing Manny Pacquiao International Chess Tournament at the Family Country Homes Convention Center here.
Entering the seventh round this morning, December 11 with a half a point lead in the field, the 24-year-old Hafiz produced the quickest win on the top board to further solidify his quest for the title in the nine-round Swiss individual standard event.
More than the hunt for the crown and the $5,000 top purse, the high-percentage playing Hafiz could nail his third and final norm for an International Master as he needed just 41 minutes and 35 moves with black in a Gruenfeld defense encounter to demolish the American IM Josiah Stearman to keep the solo lead with 5.5 points.
His lone draw came in the third round opposite Russian IM Oleg Badmatsyrenov.
At first, it looked like Stearman had a criminal passed pawn in the center supported by a battery of Rooks. But Hafiz’s brilliant Bb3 move on the 27th suddenly sent the American crumbling and later extended his hand for resignation.
“He’s consistent playing with either color on the board and his disciplined manner and humble demeanor would bring him to something big someday,” said arbiter Lorenzo Cuizon of Hafiz, the national record holder of blind chess simul in Indonesia.
Filipino Grandmaster Darwin Laylo, meanwhile defeated the top-seeded Indonesian GM Novendra Priasmoro on board 2 to face the front-running Hafiz in the penultimate eight round this afternoon.
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