Standings after nine rounds (Open Division)—Savchenko, 8.5, Sivuk 6.5, Lu, Laylo 6, Demchenko, Kotanjian, Deepan, Gupta, Nguyen, Shomoev, Lin, Belous, 5.5, Smirnov, Rohan, Garcia, Mozharov, Puranik, Docena, Zubov, Liu, 5.0, Dimakiling, Sunil.duth Lyna, Nolte, Antonio, Abelgas 4.5, Bitoon, Pimentel, Torre, Senador, Aravindh, Sean, Severino 4, Bersamina, Pascua, Segarra, Dela Cruz, Turquza, Suede 3.5, Frayna, San Diego, Mendoza, Galas 3.
Standings after seven rounds (Challenger Division)—Tiu, Grafil, Bagamasbad 6.0, Parondo, Marimla, Aquino, Rilloraza 5.5, Salgados, Medina, Morado, Sacar, Ruaya, Cajeras, Lopez, Bernardo Dale, 5.0, Literatus, Evangelista, Rapanot, Florendo, Miciano Redor, 4,5, Sevillano, Infiesto, Florendo P., Bautista, Subaste, Curioso, Manaog, Alidani, Lim, Diaz, Rivera 4.0.
RUSSIAN Grandmaster Boris Savchenko racked up two more wins in the seventh and eighth round to widen his lead over his pursuers to virtually pocket the title with only a round remaining in the 2015 Philippine Sports Commission-Puregold International Chess Challenge at the Subic Bay Peninsular Hotel, SBMA, in Olongapo City.
Savchenko, the no. 8 seed, waylaid no. 4 seed Shanglei Lu of China in the eighth round and then outwitted compatriot GM Pavel Smirnov after 51 moves of a King’s Indian Classical Main Line to bring his total to 8.5 points, two points ahead of his closest pursuer, GM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine.
Sivuk, who topped the Philippine International Chess Championhip also held here a week ago, also posted two straight wins—beating fellow Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubov in the eighth round before upending Indian GM Chakkravarthy Deepan in the ninth to charge back into second place.
Still within striking distance of second spot with 6.0 points are Lu and Filipino GM Darwin Laylo, who split the point against Deepan and Lu in the eighth and ninth round, respectively.
Laylo will try to wrest second spot against Sivuk, while Lu faces Russian GM Anton Shomoev in the 10th round and final round in the tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and supported by PSC, Philippine Olympic Committee, Puregold, Asia United Bank, Burlington Socks and Marc Ventures and Mining Development Corp.
Shomoev, who also drew his two last games, is in the company of compatriots and GMs Anton Demchenko and Vladimir Belous, GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia, Deepan, top seed GM Abhijeet Gupta of India, Vietnames GM Duc Hoa Nguyen, and International Master Chen Lijn of China Lin with 5.5 points each.
In the Challenger Division, top seed Robert Franz Grafil, Sherwin Tiu and National Master Efren Bagamasbad emerged tied after seven rounds, with Tiu taking on Bagamasbad and Grafil testing the mettle of Rolly Parondo (5.5) in the eighth round still being played as of press time.