The Philippines’ Daniel Quizon delivered one of the most inspiring performances by a Filipino in recent times as he finished tied for first in the ultra-competitive 30th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival in the United Arab Emirates Saturday night.
The 20-year-old Filipino International Master brought down 10th seed Grandmaster Sunilduth Lyna Narayana of India in a masterful 51-move victory of a King’s Indian duel to end up with five others at the helm with seven points apiece.
The Olympiad-bound reigning national champion wound up sixth after tiebreaks were computed with Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev seizing first place and GM David Paravyan of FIDE and another Uzbek GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov completing the podium finish.
Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca and top seed Iranian GM M. Amin Tabatabaei ended up fourth and fifth, respectively.
Still, the feeling was the same as winning first place for Quizon as he ended up with an impressive performance rating of 2749 that earned him a whopping 33.3 rating points and sent his own rating leapfrogging to 2490.3 from 2457, or just less than 10 points away from breaching the 2500 plateau and earning the GM title outright.
Quizon also earned a GM result but he doesn’t need one as he already has the required three.
All Quizon needs to do is reach 2500, which he could accomplish in the 45th World Chess Olympiad slated Sept. 10 to 22 in Budapest, Hungary.
“Du’n ko na lang po subukan kunin sa Olympiad,” said Quizon, who has faced seven GMs in Abu Dhabi and beaten four of them against two losses.
The National Chess Federation of the Philippines also praised Quizon for his momentous performance.
“Congratulations to him. NCFP chairman/president Cong. (Butch) Pichay is really delighted with his performance, very impressive,” said NCFP CEO and national coach GM Jayson Gonzales.
“Hopefully, tuloy-tuloy ang kanyang galing up to the Olympiad,” he added.
