Worthy winner

Less than a year ago, I overheard a comment that the Filipino players who were taking part in the Penang open of 2010 could not seriously be considered contenders for any future Philippine Olympiad chess team.

Sometimes, it is dangerous to say this because it is possible that something may then happen to show up the folly of this sweeping comment. Time has shown that in the case of Oliver Barbosa, he was indeed a worthy winner. 

Ten months ago, Barbosa was virtually unknown in Malaysia despite him already being an international master with a 2451 rating. But he came to Penang in December last year and snatched the first prize. 

Curious then about this fellow, I made some investigations and seen that he had actually been playing chess for quite a while; even having played in tournaments as far away as in New York during 2009. 

Then he was inactive for about a year, presumably to complete his studies at the University of the Philippines, before he resumed his international chess activities in April 2010. One tournament soon followed another, and the natural confidence soon crept back into his game. 

If he had been a player with a 2451 rating in the November 2010 rating list, his playing strength had shot up to 2538 points on the September 2011 list within 10 months. In the process, he achieved his first grandmaster norm at the 10th Asian continental individual chess championship in Mashhad, Iran in May and his second norm at the Philippine national chess championship in July. 

So ever since July, he had been searching for this third and final norm for his grandmaster chess title. He was disappointed at the Arthur Tan Malaysian open in August when his results fell short of his own expectations.

However, he still had one other bite at the title when he played at the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters chess championship that concluded last Saturday at the Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences in Kuala Lumpur.

This time around, Barbosa made no mistake in the 10-player round-robin tournament. He turned in a steady performance and then disposed off his nearest rival, Jahongir Vakhidov, who was running neck-to-neck with him at the initial stages.

By the end of the tournament’s seventh round, Barbosa found himself at the threshold of his goal which was duly achieved in the eighth round, coming from a short draw with our own international master, Mas Hafizulhelmi.

So within a remarkable spate of five months, Barbosa turned from an international master to a grandmaster. This title will still need to be ratified and awarded by the World Chess Federation but for all practical purposes, he is already one. 

I should also mention that the Raja Nazrin Shah invitational masters chess championship confirmed more than one new grandmaster. Apart from Barbosa, another of the Philippines’ international masters, Richard Bitoon, also achieved his final grandmaster title norm.

Bitoon had a much tougher journey towards reaching his goal in this tournament. At the start of the final round of the event, he was in an unenviable must-win situation, needing a full point from an opponent, the Uzbek grandmaster Tahir Vakhidov, who was very solid and had remained undefeated thus far.

The Filipino international master threw everything into the game and he emerged from the vast complications with an advantage. Yet the fact that Vakhidov still managed to put in a stubborn defence meant that this was the final game to finish in the tournament. 

There was a third player whose efforts netted him a grandmaster title norm at this tournament: Jahongir Vakhidov who, incidentally, was the son of the senior Vakhidov. Both the Vakhidovs have been rather regular visitors to the Malaysian Chess Festival and there is great satisfaction to see a young player grow up through the years. 

Now 16-years-old, young Jahongir not only earned himself his first grandmaster title norm but also confirmed his status as an international master. And incidentally, he is placed 30th among the world’s highest ranked under-16 players.

The accompanying Raja Nazrin Shah international open championship was won by the Vietnamese international master Nguyen Duc Hua, a full point ahead of five other international masters and one, Edgar Reggie Olay, who was also confirmed as a new international master at the end of this tournament.        

Up next

Chess world cup

Have you been mesmerized by the excitement of the Chess World Cup in the Russian city of Khanty-Mansiysk? It is still an on-going event but the field has since been reduced to the final four players from the initial list of 128 participants. The final round of four games, which are played over normal regulation time control starts today and will continue until Tuesday. 

The stakes are pretty high as three of the four finalists will qualify to join the Candidates tournament of the next world chess championship cycle. You can watch the live games from the official website at http://chess.ugrasport.com/ starting at 5pm daily.