CEBUANO wood pushers got off to solid starts in the Piaya Network 2017 Negros International Open Chess Tournament at the District North Point in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.
Ninth seed National Master (NM) Rogelio Enriquez Jr., 14th seed Merben Roque, 21st seed Edsel Montoya and 10th seed International Master (IM) Kim Steven Yap all made it to the top 10 after two rounds of the cash-rich event.
NM Enriquez Jr., Roque and Montoya won their first two matches to tally 2.0 points while IM Yap has 1.5 points after a win and a draw.
NM Enriquez Jr. beat 34th seed Jagadeesh Siddharth of Singapore in the first round and Filipino Emmanuel Emperado in the second.
Roque edged National Maser Rustom Tolentino in the opening round and upset third seed GM Tuan Minh Tran of Vietnam in the second while Montoya beat Diosdado Gelig and sixth seed IM Ronald Dableo in the first two rounds.
IM Yap on the other hand, started with a victory against Michael Concio Jr. but was held to a draw in the second round by Daniel Cuizon.
Top seed Nigel Short of England and fifth seed Duc Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam, IM Minh Thang Tran and Filipino IM Chito Garma also got 2.0 points to share the lead with Roque, Montoya and NM Enriquez Jr.
Indian GM Srinath Narayanan, IM Oliver Dimakiling, IM Yap scored 1.5 points along with 10 others.
There are still seven-rounds left to be competed in the nine-day international tournament organized by the A&V Negros Chess Club Inc. in cooperation with the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).
The champion player in the open division will receive $3,000 while the rest of the top 10 will also receive cash.