International Master Oliver Dimakiling missed the third and final Grandmaster norm but still finished a decent second in the Grand Copthorne Professor Lim Kok Ann Invitational GM tournament in Singapore over the weekend.
The 42-year-old Dimakiling downed IM Wynn Zaw Htun of Myanmar in the ninth and final round to claim solo second place with six points on five wins, two draws and the same number of losses.
Singaporean GM Tin Jingyao lost to GM Daniel Howard Fernandez of England in the last round but still claimed the crown with seven points.
Dimakiling finished ahead of several other higher ranked foes including top seed B. Adhiban of India, the only super-GM in the field with a rating 2616, who finished fourth.
The Davao City native missed the final norm by half a point, no thanks to a heartbreaking defeat to Fernandez in the penultimate round Friday.
For a player to achieve GM status, he or she must have three norms and reach a rating of at least 2500.
Dimakiling has two norms he obtained in the 2006 Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open and the other in the 2012 Battle of the GMs in Boracay and a current rating of 2439.9 including a whopping 19.9 rating points he acquired recently.