by:  joeyj
chessaccount.wordpress.com

 

GM Oliver Barbosa,  the Philippines’ first  qualifier to the Chess World Cup 2013, once again proved his worth and mettle by delivering sterling performances and winning solo first place in “The 4th Odisha International Grand Master Open Chess Championship” also known as “KIIT CUP-2012” that took place from 30^th May to  5^th June 2012 at KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha (formerly Orissa), India.

Seeded 5^th among a strong field of 150 rated players, the tourney with 1-Belarusian Super GM (SGM),  2-Russian and 1-Indian GMs  in the top 4,  Barbosa overcome the odds and completed the 10-round Swiss System “Standard” chess  scoring  a whooping and exceptional  8.5/10  (7wins & 3draws) points with a performance rating of 2648 and  a  +14.4 gain in rating points.   Previously, last 5-13 May 2012, he also had gained a +10.8 rating points at the “Asian Continental Chess Championship 2012” in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.  These brings his “Live Rating” to  2575.2  and just  24.8 points short for a Super GM status (2600+).  

Barbosa, who snatched the sole lead from Russia’s GM Nikolai Chadaev with an impressive win in round 8, settled for 2 consecutive draws in the 9^th & 10^th  rounds and  finished half-a-point more than the 2^nd  to  6^th placers  GM Chadaev Nikolai of Russia (2^nd),  IM Grover Sahaj of India (3^rd),  GM Hoang Thanh Trang  of Hungary (4^th) , SGM Podolchenko Evgeniy  of Belarus (5^th)  and IM Vaibhav Suri of India (6^th)  who all scored 8.0/10 and whose respective standing were determined by Buchholz tiebreak point system.

Barbwire’s  road to the Odisha championship is quite similar to  Odisha’s geographical features, a combination of flat shorelines & terrains, flood basins, undulating highlands, hilly and upland areas.  But despite all the odds he toppled 7 opponents on the road:

1.    Rnd-1 Sunyasakta Satpathy IND(1904)
2.    Rnd-2 WIM Thipsay Bhagyashree Sathe IND(2164)
3.     Rnd-3  WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman IND(2300)
4.     Rnd-5  IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu  IND(2451)
5.     Rnd-6   IM  Praveen Kumar C  IND(2342)
6.     Rnd-7  GM Ziatdinov Raset  UZB(2370)
7.     Rnd-8  GM Chadaev Nikolai  RUS(2563)

And made truce (draws) with  3 others:

1.    Rnd-4  IM  Shivananda B S  IND(2363)
2.    Rnd-9 GM  Sengupta Deep IND(2554) 
3.    Rnd-10  IM Grover Sahaj  IND(2506)

 Aside from Barbosa,  two other Filipino Grandmasters participated in the 4^th Odisha championship are  GM Gomez, John Paul  who scored 7.5/10 (10^th)  and GM Paragua, Mark 7.0/10 (14^th).

Per this blogger chat with GM Barbosa, just after he was declared as the Champion, the 3-Philippines GMs  are to proceed and participate in the “5^th Mayor’s Cup International Open Chess Tournament Mumbai”  scheduled to take place from 7th  to 15th June in Mumbai, India.

 Final standings (Top 15)

references:

1.   http://chess-results.com/tnr74120.aspx?art=1&rd=10&lan=1&fed=PHI
2.   https://chessaccount.wordpress.com/news/oliver-barbosa-qualifies-to-chess-world-cup-2013/