By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
International Master Daniel Quizon boosted his bid to claiming a World Chess Olympiad spot after scoring 1.5 points in the fourth and fifth rounds Friday and seizing the solo lead in the Philippine National Chess Championships at the Marikina Community Convention Center.
Quizon, 19, actually took the lead after an impressive 33-move victory over Grandmaster Darwin Laylo in the fourth round early in the day, then halved the point with FIDE Master Mark Jay Bacojo hours later to keep the solo lead.
The results also enabled the World Cup veteran to firm his bid to snaring one of the three spots to the Olympiad set Sept. 10 to 23 in Budapest, Hungary and the top purse worth P120,000 in the tournament presented by Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro and Congresswoman Maan Teodoro.
At solo second with four points is IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia, who drew his last two games including a fifth-round split with Woman GM Janelle Mae Frayna.
In a four-player logjam at No. 3 with three points apiece are Bacojo, Frayna, 14-year-old wunderkind Christian Gian Karlo Arca and battle-tested GM John Paul Gomez.
The 13-round tournament, backed by NCFP chairman president Prospero Pichay, Jr., POC president Abraham Tolentino, PSC chair Richard Bachmann, the Eugene Torre Chess Foundation, Pan de Amerikana’s Jundio Salvador, will will resume Jan. 3.
