It’s not over for International Master (IM) Kim Steven Yap.
The Cebuano Yap logged two straight victories after suffering a setback in the open division of the ongoing Philippine International Chess Championships in Metro Manila last Wednesday.
Yap now has 5.0 points in the 10-round Swiss System format tournament after beating FIDE Master Randy Segarra in the seventh round and Noel Dela Cruz in the eighth round. With the two wins, Yap, who slid to 19th last Wednesday, climbed to 12th place in the rankings.
Prior to the victories, Yap suffered a loss in the sixth round against Indian IM Lyna Narayanan Sunilduth.
As of this writing, Yap is still playing against the heavily favored Grand Master (GM) Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia, who is the tournament’s fifth seed.
Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia, meanwhile, lost his lead in the rankings to GM Anton Demchenko of Russia, who has a bigger tie break point average. Both of them have 6.0 points but Demchenko has a 28.50 tie break point average compared to Pantsulaia’s 28.25.
Demchenko won over GM Antonio Rogelio Jr. in the seventh round and victimized another Filipino, GM John Paul Gomez, in the eighth round.
Pantsulaia finished the seventh and eighth rounds with a draw over Armenia’s GM Avetik Grigoryan and Russia’s GM Mikhail Mozharov, respectively.
GM Gagunashvili is at third with 5.5 points while top seeded GM Ivan Popov of Russia is at fourth place followed by GM Mozharov.
Sixth to 10th placers in the rankings after the eighth round were GM Grigoryan, the Philippines’ GM Gomez, GM Darwin Laylo, GM Antonio Jr. and IM Sunilduth.
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