DAVAO City's very own international master (IM) Oliver Dimakiling added a feather on his cap by emerging champion in the recently-concluded 44th Selangor Open Chess Tournament 2017 in Malaysia.
Dimakiling tallied 7.5 points, beating Vietnam grand master (GM) Nguyen Duc Hoa who earned seven points. The latter settled for the runner-up honors instead as Indian GM R.R. Laxman, who scored 6.5, placed third.
The fourth-seeded Dabawenyo was unbeaten, hacking out five wins and drawing four matches in the nine-round Swiss System format competition.
Dimakiling drew with top-seeded GM Nguyen of Vietnam in the fourth round.
He was victorious over Adelard Bai of Chinese Taipei, Malaysians Woman Fide master Hisham Nur Najiha Azman, Chan Yi Meng Ryan, Malaysian IM Jimmy Liew Chee-Meng and Filipino IM Emmanuel Senador.
Manila-based Dimakiling, who is from Sasa, also split points with Laxman and Filipino FM Nelson Villanueva.
Trailing behind were Filipino IM Haridas Pascua, Indian D Gukeshm Uzbekistan GM Alexei Barsov, Villanueva, Efren Bagamasbad and Malaysian Tan Soo Wei Dawson.
