Jerish John Velarde from Lapu-Lapu City is one of the competitors in the Asian Youth Chess Championships in Thailand. He bagged a bronze in the rapid event of the 12-and-under category. contributed
Pride of Lapu-Lapu finishes third in rapid event of 12-under category in Asian Youth C’ships
Jerish John Velarde made Cebu proud as he brought home the lone medal for the Philippines in the rapid event of the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships held at the Lotus Pang Suan Kaew Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The 12-year-old Velarde from Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu bagged a bronze medal in the open 12-and-under category on Sunday after finishing with 6.0 points in seven outings.
Candidate Master (CM) D. Gukesh of India won the gold with a perfect 7.0 points while CM Quoc Hy Nguyen of Vietnam took the silver with 6.0 points, the same score with Velarde. He took the silver due to a higher tie break score.
Velarde, an incoming sixth grader in the Marie Ernestine School in Lapu-Lapu City, scored a victory over Sulaimanov Tilekmatali of Kyrgyzstan in the first round but yielded to Daneshvar Bardiya of Iran in the second round. Velarde bounced back after beating Hewage Dinupa Adithya of Sri Lanka in the third round, Yu Zili of China in the fourth round, Wu David Tai-Wei of Chinese-Taipei in the fifth round, CM Arfan Aditya Bagus of Indonesia in the sixth round and Lee Care Greene of Malaysia in the seventh and final round.
Velarde continues his stint in the tournament as he is set to compete in the standard play, which started yesterday.
Engr. Edilberto Velarde, Jerish John’s father who is with the chess wonder in Thailand, said he is proud of his son’s accomplishment so far.
“I am very proud of him but there is still the standard category that will start today (Monday),” the elder Velarde said.
The youngster, though, took off to a slow start, opening the nine-round standard category with a loss to 63rd seed Matthew Ryan Chen of Chinese Taipei yesterday. He will face 51st seed Hewage in the second round.
In standard chess, 90 minutes is given for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. In rapid competition, players get 15 minutes and +10 seconds (extra time) for each move.
Third best in Asia
With his accomplishment in the rapid event, Jerish John, according to his father, has improved his ranking in Asia.
“He is now ranked third in Asia in his age category,” said Edilberto.
The 19th-seed Jerish John gained popularity among the Cebuano chess community after he bagged a bronze medal in the 2016 ASEAN + Age Group Chess Tournament held in Pattaya, Thailand and also secured a silver medal in the 13th Asian Schools Chess Championships in China last year.
Velarde is expected to represent Region VII in the Palarong Pambansa in Vigan, Ilocos Sur this April 15 to 21. /with a report from Marlon Bernardino