International Master Rolando Nolte shocked third seed Grandmaster Vitaly Sivuk of Sweden to finish third behind eventual champion Konstantin Sek of FIDE at the close of the MCPL’s Manny Pacquiao International Open Chess Festival in General Santos City Saturday, Dec. 17.
Nolte, 50, actually wound up in a three-way tie on top with seven points along with Russian-born Sek and second seed Lucas Van Foreest of the Netherlands but settled for the bronze after tiebreaks were applied.
Sek drew with fourth seed GM Pier Luigi Basso of Italy in the final round for first even as Van Foreest also halved the point with IM Daniel Quizon to settle for second.
Sek, Van Foreest and Nolte thus split the combined purse of $40,000 (P2.2 million) –$20,000 for first, $12,000 for second and $8,000 for third – courtesy of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao.
Meanwhile, Quizon finished in a three-way tie for No. 4 with GM John Paul Gomez and Basso with identical 6.5 points, but the reigning Asian Junior blitz champion emerged with the best tiebreak to claim fourth spot.
Gomez took fifth while Basso sixth.
IM Dragos Ceres, who trounced FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri, ended up in a seven-man group with six points apiece but took seventh spot with the best tiebreak.
Also in the same group were top seed Hovhannes Gabuzyan of Armenia, IM Michael Concio, Jr., IM John Daniel Bryant of the United States, GM Darwin Laylo, IM Eric Labog, Jr. and GM Joey Antonio.