Severino finishes 2nd place at Chinese Taipei chessfest – BusinessWorld Online
FIDE MASTER (FM) Sander Severino drew with countryman Grandmaster (GM) Joey Antonio in the ninth and final round to finish a strong second in the Chinese Taipei Chess Association International Open on Tuesday.
Mr. Severino, a multiple Asian and ASEAN Para Games gold winner, finished undefeated with seven points on five wins and four draws, or just half a game behind eventual champion GM Sayantan Das of India.
The Silay City, Negros Occidental native had a chance to tie first and beat Mr. Das for the crown due to a higher tiebreak score.
But he couldn’t get the victory and settled for the truce instead for the runner-up finish.
Mr. Antonio, Jasper Rom and Darry Bernardo, finished in a five-player logjam at No. 3 with 6.5 points apiece and ended up fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, after tiebreaks were applied.
Hungarian GM Gergely Aczel was third while Spain’s Aitor Garcia-Ruiz Fuentes was eighth.
Rounding out the top 10 were Australian World GM Zhang Jilin, another Filipino FM Roel Abelgas and Japanese International Master Ryosuke Nanjo. — Joey Villar