GENERAL SANTOS City ― Aiming for his third and final International Master norm, Indonesian Fide Master Arif Abdul Hafiz is up for his first major chess triumph in Asia.
The 24-year-old Hafiz, who already had two IM norms, needs just a draw in his final round duel with countryman Grandmaster Novendra Priasmoro today, December 12, to claim the championship trophy and the $5,000 top purse of the Manny Pacquiao International Chess Tournament at the Family Country Homes Convention Center here.
Pitted with the third-seed GM Darwin Laylo in the penultimate eighth round on Monday afternoon, the 17th-ranked Hafiz ― who opened the match with e4 ― was surprised by the Filipino’s well-prepared Portuguese variation of the Scandinavian opening.
Pondering long, Hafiz managed to weather black’s slight advantage and capitalized on Laylo’s Qb4 blunder on the 21st move gaining for him a whole Knight.
“After nag-blunder ‘mi nakulong at ma-one piece down gusto ko na’ng mag-resign,” Laylo said.
“Pero tinignan ko posisyon may laban pa kaya’t nagbabakasali,” added Laylo, who succeeded (in creating) a fortress with his remaining Knight’s maneuver and later offered a draw that was accepted after a minute-long evaluation.
The Philippine team mainstay Laylo, who trails Hafiz by half a point at 6.5 points, is expected to go for a flat-out win against compatriot International Master Eric Labog Jr. (six pts) on board 2.
Other final-round matches on the top boards among 5.5-pointers pit Russian IM Oleg Badmatsyrenov against Marc Kevin Labog, IM Hamed Nouri versus another Russian IM Alexey Polschikov, Jayson Salubre opposite GM slayer IM Rolando Nolte and Sherwin Tiu against FM Ruud Van Meegen of the Netherlands.
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