Woman Candidate Master Nika Juris Nicolas finished in a tie for ninth place at the conclusion of rapid competition of the Girls Under-14 category of 28th Asian Youth Chess Championship in Shenzhen, China on Thursday.
The 13-year-old Nicolas, chess wizard from Pasig City, a Grade 9 student at Victory Christian International School, defeated WCM Bibissara Yerzhan of Kazakhstan and Maria Kleshcheva of Russia in the last two rounds to raise her total to 4.5 points off 4 wins, 2 loses and 1 draw.
Also with 4.5 points were Diana Najafi of Iran, WFM Khanzada Amanzhol of Kazakhstan, Hong Ha My Nguyen of Vietnam and WCM Kristina Zavivaeva of Russia.
Nicolas wound up overall 12th place after the tie break points were applied.
RV Pavithra of India won the gold medal with 6.0 points, defeating 5.5 pointers in the likes of WCM Mondal Maitreyi of India, WFM Le Vy Tran of Vietnam, and WFM Shuang Wu of China.
In the Boys Under-18 division, International Master Christian Gian Karlo Arca ended his campaign in an overall 19th place with 4.0 points, on account of 3 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws.
IM Tran Gia Phuc Pham of Vietnam scored 6.0 points to clinch the gold medal, half point ahead with FM Anh Minh Dang of Vietnam, Jiaxiang Xie of China, FM Inayat Bolat of Kazakhstan, and FM Vu Anh Duong of Vietnam who totes 5.5 points each.
Meanwhile, Arca and Nicolas, both eye for a podium finish in the standard and blitz competition.
It shall be recalled that the 17 years old Zamboanga City bet Arca, a Grade 12 student at Ramon Enriquez High School won the gold medal in the blitz category and settled for a silver medal in the standard competition of the Boys Under-16 in the last year's edition.
(Marlon Bernardino)
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