Canino, Bacojo clinch IM rankings in Ozamiz tourney

THE PHILIPPINES’ Ruelle Canino and Mark Jay Bacojo came through with podium finishes and earned International Master (IM) titles in the 6th ASEAN Individual Chess Championships-Gov. Henry Oaminal Cup at the Asenso Misamis Occidental Resort and Aquamarine Park in Ozamiz over the weekend.

Ms. Canino drew with Mongolian Batpelden Buyankhishig in 56 moves of a Queen’s Gambit and ended up at second in the women’s class with 6.5 points behind eventual champion Evgenija Ovod of Russia with seven points.

Mr. Bacojo likewise drew his duel with Munkhdalai Amilal in 71 moves of a Sicilian Defense and took No. 3 with six points in the open division that was won by Indian V S Raahul with seven points in this tournament, supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

Vietnamese Nguyen Quoc Hy was second with 6.5 points.

Apart from the WIM title, the 17-year-old Cagayan de Oro native, who will be part of the country’s Southeast Asian Games-bound team in Thailand next month, also earned a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) norm plus an impressive 99.6 rating points that should hike her 2110 rating to 2209.6.

And it could have been a WGM title outright had Ms. Canino found a way to cash in on a pawn edge and beat the Mongolian World School Chess Under-17 champion in that critical final round duel.

“I tried but I’m happy with my results in this tough tournament,” said Ms. Canino, who thanked Far Eastern University (FEU) chairman Aurelio Montinoa and athletic director Mark Molina for their backing.

The 19-year-old Mr. Bacojo, a FIDE Master and an FEU psychology student, came from being ranked 24th out of 41 participants to win bronze after racking up four straight wins starting in the fifth round.

He capped it with a shock win over Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh in the penultimate round that precipitated his dazzling Houdini act in the final round that saw him crawl his way out of a losing position and into a stalemate after Amilal unraveled in a frantic time scramble.

“I was lucky in the last round,” said Mr. Bacojo, who gained 39.4 rating points that should propel him from 2298 to 2337.4. — Joey Villar