A quick, calculated and friendly final round draw was enough for FIDE Master Arif Abdul Hafiz to crown himself king as the Manny Pacquiao/1000 GM International Open Chess Tuesday in General Santos City.
Hafiz offered a draw in the 14th move of a Ruy Lopez game which was accepted by fellow Indonesian top seed Grandmaster Novendra Priasmoro and preserved his half-point lead ahead of the pack.
After wresting the solo leadership in the sixth round, Hafiz knew that his tiebreak scores were superior over his closest pursuer and was enough to win the trophy and top purse of $5,000.
Hafiz, who hails from Bogor, an hour away from the capital Jakarta where his juniors batchmate Priasmoro is based, was elated to even find GM Darwin Laylo falter in his game with International Master Eric Labog Jr. in the tight race for second.
Hafiz and Priasmoro, both 24 years old, grew up and trained together in the Western Java area as kids. They are two of the most promising youngsters in Indonesia.
Laylo, only half a point behind going into the final round, could have tied Hafiz’s 7.5 points tally with a win with the white pieces but got ambushed by the young and creative Labog in 48 moves of a Queen’s Indian Defense game.
Labog, the only Filipino who finished with an unbeaten slate of five wins and four draws, took solo second and $4,000 from boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, who is celebrating his birthday this week, along with sponsoring 1000 GM chess company from the United States.
Laylo took third on higher tiebreaks along with 6.5 pointers Priasmoro, untitled Sherwin Tiu, International Master Rolando Nolte and Alexey Polschikov of Russia.
American International Master and second seed Josiah Stearman finished with six points along with FM Alekhine Nouri, FM Mark Jay Bacojo, Mark Kevin Labog, IM Oleg Badmatsyrenov of FIDE, and IM Ricardo de Guzman.
