Diego Abraham Capariño in action. | Photo from the tournament’s Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Diego Abraham Capariño, one of the most reliable woodpushers of the Toledo Xignex Trojans, made waves on the international stage after emerging champion in the recently concluded 5th Big Rook International Chess Festival Open held in Bangkok, Thailand, over the weekend.
Now based in Thailand to pursue his chess coaching career, Capariño topped the nine-round standard open division by scoring a solo 7.5 points.
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Seeded No. 7, the Cebuano Capariño outplayed several higher-ranked opponents, including Latvia’s No. 4 seed Arsens Batashevs and FIDE Master (FM) Alexander Chernyavsky, who settled for second and third place respectively with 7.0 points apiece.
China’s Gehua Wen also scored 7.0 points and finished fourth via tiebreaks, while Filipino FM Nelson Villanueva claimed fifth place with 6.5 points. Meanwhile, tournament top seed Grandmaster (GM) Darwin Laylo, also a Filipino, finished a surprising 15th with 5.0 points.
READ: Toledo Trojans dominate Isabela, Quezon City in PCAP chess tourney
Capariño kicked off his stellar campaign with four consecutive wins, beginning with Samar Dayal of England. He then defeated Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Velmurugan Sreekarthika of Singapore in Round 2, followed by victories over Singapore’s Hong Ming Teo and Latvia’s Batashevs in Rounds 3 and 4.
He encountered slight setbacks with back-to-back draws in Rounds 5 and 6 against Wen and FM Chernyavsky, respectively. However, Capariño bounced back by beating Malaysia’s Ohn Ko Ko and upsets GM Laylo in Rounds 7 and 8, before settling for a draw against FM Villanueva in the final round to secure the championship.
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He is expected to suit up for the Trojans in Wednesday’s much-anticipated grand finals showdown against the Pasig City King Pirates.