LAPU-LAPU City’s chess phenom Jerish John Velarde suffered his third loss in the under-12 standard division of the ongoing Asian Youth Chess Championships in Thailand yesterday.
This, after the 12-year-old Velarde, who served as the 24th seed of the tournament, lost to sixth seed Di Zhang of China in the seventh round. From 13th place last Friday, he fell to the 23rd spot in the current rankings with two rounds left to be competed.
Velarde will face 17th seed, Candidate Master (CM) Phuoc Bui Huy of Vietnam, for the eighth round today.
He has 4.0 points coming from four wins with three losses. The top seed, CM D. Gukesh of India, took back the lead after the seventh round with 6.5 points against second seed Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran who has 6.0 points followed by third seed CM Quoc Hy Nguyen of Vietnam with 6.0 points as well.
Velarde won over 51st seed Dinupa Adithya Hewage of Sri Lanka, 43rd seed Kai-Chun Chen of Chinese Taipei, 44th seed Noppakun Promchan of Thailand and eighth seed Dias Alimbetov of Kazakhstan. He was defeated by 61st seed Jia-You Yao of Chinese Taipei, fourth seed M. Pranesh of India and Di Zhang in this ongoing tournament.