CEBU’s lone bet in the Asian Youth Chess Championships and Asian Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships, Jerish John Velarde, put up a strong start yesterday in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The 12-year-old Lapu-Lapu City native won four of his five matches at the start of the competition yesterday to place ninth among 70 players in the under-12 division rapid category.
The 25th-Seed Velarde, a silver medalist of the 13th Asian Schools Chess Championships in Liaoning, China last year, edged 54th-Seed Tilekmatali Silaumanov of Kyrgyzstan in the opening round.
In the second round, Velarde lost to top-seed Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran but bounced back strong by winning his next three matches, beating 58th-Seed Dinupa Adithya Hewage of Sri Lanka, 70th-Seed Zili Yu of China, and 68th-Seed Wu David Tai-Wei of Taiwan in the third, fourth and fifth rounds, respectively.
He will face eighth-seed Candidate Master (CM) Arfan Aditya Bagus of Indonesia in the sixth round today.
The 47th-Seed D. Gukesh of India currently leads the standings with a perfect five points.