Quizon holding ground in World Jrs Open

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino Daniel Quizon continued his march towards claiming a Grandmaster title as he kept holding his ground through six rounds of the FIDE World Juniors Open Chess Championships in Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India.

The 20-year-old World Cup veteran held second seed Russian-born GM Aleksey Grebnev of FIDE, a former world Under-18 titlist, to a draw in 35 moves of a King’s Indian duel to remain half a point off the pace.

Quizon, who claimed the last of three required norms to close in on a GM title following his conquest of a tilt in Hanoi, Vietnam last March, was in a heavy 14-player logjam at No. 5 with 4.5 points each.

They trail by half a point a four-player lead group of Kazakh International Master Kazybek Nogerbek, Colombian GM Jose Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso, Russian IM Rudik Makarian and Sri Lankan IM L M S T De Silva with five points each.

Quizon was tackling Hungarian GM Gleb Dudin in the seventh round at press time in this 11-round meet that drew 125 participants.

Quizon was hoping to gain some FIDE rating points to reach the required minimum rating of 2500 to become a full-pledged GM.