Filipino Grandmaster John Paul Gomez and International Master Paulo Bersamina fell short on their World Cup dreams.
Gomez and Bersamin settled for a Top 10 finish in the men’s division of the Eastern Asian Zonal 3.3 Chess Championships 2019 in Mongolia.
Gomez, 32, split his point with Mongolian Sugar Gan-Erdene while Bersamina, 22, turned back another local bet Bayaraa Chinguun to wind up in a tie for fourth to seventh places with six points apiece.
They later placed fifth and seventh, respectively, following a tiebreak.
Indonesian GM Susanto Megaranto trounced Mongolia’s IM Sumiya Bilguun, Gan-Erdene and Vietnamese IM Nguyen Van Huy stopped Mongolia’s GM Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa to end up tied for first with seven points apiece.
Megaranto got the highest tiebreak score to claim the crown, while Gen-Erdene claimed second and the last berth to the Chess World Cup 2019, slated from Sept. 9 to Oct. 2 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
Gomez was in the lead in the first five rounds.
Then, he got sidetracked by a stinging defeat to Bilguun in the sixth.
And that cost him his chance of making it to World Cup Khanty-Mansiysk.