DATMO 2009: Emmanuel Senador currently on top

First thing first, please allow me to make a bit of correction. I earlier stated that Chinese player, Xie Deshun is the one who had a performance rating of nearly 2800 in his first 10 or 12 games in the last edition of Subic International Chess Championship. But it is actually Yu Yangyi, the 15 year old prodigy from China where Emmanuel Senador defeated in the 8th round to take the solo lead in the ongoing DATMO 2009.

According to the DATMO.net website, Senador, handling the black piece, "... successfully thwarted Yu Yangyi’s fierce attack against his king. After several exchanges, the endgame favoured Emmanuel and the win was never in doubt (That's usually happens in most chess games I should say :).

GM Darwin Laylo on the other hand settled for a draw against Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and IM Ronald Dableo upset GM Ziaur Raman to secure their place just half a point behind Senador with 6.0 points with eight others. Emmanuel Senador will be pitted against another prodigy, 16 year old GM Parimarjan Negi of India, the second youngest GM ever behind Sergey Karjakin. Darwin Laylo on the other hand will have 2nd Subic International championship title holder, GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran in the 9th round while Dableo will tackle Indonesia's no.1, GM Susanto Megaranto.

Round 8 results
Round 9 pairings
DATMO 2009 website

Standings after 8 rounds

6.5 points
Senador Emmanuel

6 points
GM Negi Parimarjan, GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan, GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, GM Laylo Darwin, Yu Yangyi, GM Li Chao, GM Iuldachev Saidali, IM Dableo Ronald, GM Megaranto Susanto

5.5 points
GM Schebler Gerhard, Xiu Deshun, GM Nguyen Anh Dung, WIM Muminova Nafisa, WIM Zhang Xiaowen, IM Bitoon Richard