Antonio 6th in Sydney Chess Open: Nolte upsets Armenian Super Grandmaster!

from People's Tonight

Final standings:
7 points -- S. Ganguly (India), Z. Zhong (Singapore), G. Jones (England), Z. Zhao (Australia)
6.5 -- M. Gagunashvili (Georgia), R. Antonio (RP), V. Akobian (USA), I. Bitansky (Israel), V. Malakhatko (Belarus), S. Solomon (Australia), D. Johansen (Australia), G. Lane (Australia)

SYDNEY, Australia -- The Philippines’ GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. settled for a draw with fellow GM Daryl Johansen of Australia to finish in a tie for fifth to 12 th places with 6.5 points in the 2008 Syndey Open international chess championship at the Parramatta Town Hall here.

Overall, Antonio finished in sixth place after the tiebreak scores.

The 46-year-old campaigner from Quezon City, who holds the country’s highest ELO rating of 2529, finished with five wins, three draws and only one loss.

Antonio finished half a point behind GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India, GM Zhang Zhong of Singapore, GM Gawain Jones of England and IM Zong-yuan Zhao of Australia.

Ganguly halved the point with Zhong, Jones whipped IM Atanas Kizov of Moldova and Zhao toppled GM Murray Chandler to forge a four-way tie for first place with seven points.

Ganguly, however, earned first place after the tiebreak results.

The other Filipino campaigners wil not come home empty-handed.

Julius Joseph de Ramos finished 21st with 5.5 points.

Sherily Cua and Catherine Perena also wound up with 5.5 points, good for 23rd and 27th places, respectively.

The other Filipino finishers were Homer Cunanan, 42nd place with five points; Leo Daylo Jr., 52nd place with 4.5 points; and Kimberly Jane Cunanan, 62nd with four points.

In India, Rolando Nolte pulled the rug from under second seed GM Smbat Lputian (ELO 216) of Armenia to share sixth to 12th places in the Kolkata Open GM tournament at the Gorky Terrace.

Nolte, seeded only 27th in the 114-player field, handed Lputian his second straight setback in the 10-round tournament.

The pride of Baguio City now has 4.5 points on three wins and three draws, only half a point behind top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran of India and four other players.

With Sasikiran are GM Viktor Laznicka of Belarus, GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, GM Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and IM Roy Sartashi of India.

Oliver Barbosa and Chito Garma completed a big day by beating Kutwal Shashiskant of India a nd Nikil Shyam of India, respectively.

Barbosa improved to four points on three wins, two draws and one loss, whiel Garma jumped to 3.5 points on three wins, one draw and two losses.

In the seventh round, Nolte will play white against No. 13 seed Shukrat Safin of Uzbekistan, Barbosa will test the mettle of No. 8 GM Ahmed Adly of Egypt and Garma wil square off with No. 81 WIM Kruttika Nadig of India.