Concio tops juniors chessfest to earn ticket to world tilt

DANIEL QUIZON and Michael Concio, Jr. grew up together dreaming of the Grandmaster (GM) dream.

While Mr. Quizon has realized his dream and clinched the GM title, Mr. Concio has inched closer to achieving it after he booked a ticket to next year’s World Juniors Championships in Petrovac, Montenegro after recently ruling the national juniors tilt at the Philippine Academy for Chess Excellence.

There, the 19-year-old Dasmariñas bet could claim the GM title outright should the stars align and he ends up topping that tournament.

At present, Mr. Concio has one of the three GM results needed and would need to leapfrog from his current rating of 2373 to 2500 to achieve the feat and join Mr. Quizon, his childhood friend, in the elite GM club.

But the fastest route to a GM status remains in Petrovac where the planet’s best woodpushers aged 19 years and below will converge.

“Try,” said Mr. Concio’s coach FIDE Master  (FM) Roel Abelgas.

In the national juniors, Mr. Concio took first with 6.5 points and needed that eighth and final round win over Gabriel Ryan Paradero — a marathon 55-move win of a King’s Indian Attack — to claim the crown.

For his feat, Mr. Concio also pocketed P20,000.

Mr. Paradero dropped to a three-man tie for No. 2 with Cedric Kahlel Abris and FIDE Master Mark Jay Bacojo with six points each but wound up fourth because he had the lowest tiebreak score.

Mr. Abris, who shocked former national juniors titlist FM Alekhine Nouri, took second while Mr. Bacojo, who turned back Phil Martin Casiguran, claimed third. — Joey Villar