MARK Jay Bacojo and Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian topped their respective divisions in the semifinals of the National Chess Championships at the PACE in Quezon City and earned a chance of claiming a spot in the national team seeing action in the Bangkok Southeast Asian Games next year.
Bacojo, 18, drew with International Master Ricky de Guzman in the ninth and final round and then edged Vince Angelo Medina and Alexis Emil Maribao in tiebreaks when they emerged tied for first with 6.5 points apiece to rule the open section of this nine-round meet.
Sebastian, 19, for her part, bucked an early opening round defeat by scoring seven points in the last eight rounds in emerging the solo champion in the distaff side and leading the charge to the finals tentative set in December also at the PACE.
Joining Sebastian in the finals were Allaney Jia Doroy, Vic Glysen Derotas, Cherry Ann Mejia and Bonjoure Fille Suyamin.
In the finals, the five qualifiers will clash against Woman Grandmaster Janelle Mae Frayna, WIMs Jan Jodilyn Fronda and Bernadette Galas, Woman FIDE Master Shania Mae Mendoza and Ruelle Canino, who took the Group B gold medal in the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary a month ago.
In the men’s Medina, Maribao along with Phil Martin Casiguran and De Guzman made the cut and will compete in the finals against a field that will include Olympiad veterans newly minted GM Daniel Quizon, GM John Paul Gomez, IMs Pau Bersamina and Jem Garcia.
GMs Darwin Laylo and Joey Antonio are also invited to join the finals slated Oct. 23 to Nov. 1 in Alicia, Isabela where the champion pockets the cool purse worth P120,000.
