DAVAO City's James Infiesto and John Marvin Miciano put up impressive finishes in their just-concluded 17th Bangkok Chess Club Challenger 2017 debut at Regent Cha-Am, Cha-am in Bangkok, Thailand.
The 13th-seeded Infiesto, who earned five points in seven rounds, shared the 10th to 22nd place in the 143-player Challenger Division that was ruled by Chinese Yang Shibin who scored perfect seven points to pocket the gold medal.
Six-pointers Filipinos Louie Salvador and Redor Minandro clinched the silver and bronze, respectively.
Infiesto, the National Chess Federation of the Philippines-Davao Region coordinator, won five matches over France's Adrien Pellarin, Philippines's Francis Ching, India's Agarwal Aanya, China's Jinghan Kong and Thailand's Sanquan Chotichanathawewong.
But the Dabawenyo lost at the hands of compatriot fourth-seeded ArnulfoGavilan, Jr. and second-seeded Mohd Kamal Abdullah of Malaysia.
In the Open division, former Ateneo de Davao University standout Miciano shared the 34th to 57th place with 5.5 points in the nine-round chessfest.
Grand master (GM) Nigel Short (7.5 points) clinched the gold over Russian GMs Ivan Rozum and Anton Shomoev who made identical seven points.
The 43rd-seeded Miciano, a member of the national men's chess team and part of the Far Eastern University chess team, stunned 14th-seeded GM Chen Lin of China in their fifth round encounter. Miciano also defeated Chinese Kaiyu Ning, German Jerie Sven, Chinese Lin Ma and Thai Pinatpong Pheephacharakan.
Miciano drew with Indonesian Fide master Pasaribu Ivan Maxmilian Putra but bowed to Chinese bets Ke Mu and Yan Fang and Indian international master Sharma Himanshu.
