BACOLOD City-hailed Leo Romitman scored 7.0 points to rule the recently-concluded 8-Round Malaysia Invitational Ice Challenge Serie 4 held at Bandar Puchong, Selangor.
Romitman, who is also serving as coach of STI West Negros University, drew Malaysian Bakal Mohd Bakri in Round 3 and Filipino Tyrone Dale Yao in Round 7.
Other Filipino chessers settled in Top 20 are Yao in No.7 and Jose Charles Montalvo at No.20.
Meanwhile, finished behind Romitman are Malaysians (No.2) Abdul Rahman M Sapuan, (No.3) Muhd Khairil Asyraf Khairil, (No.4) Kah Hing Wong, (No.5) Sin Leong Lim, and (No.6) Mohd Bakri Bakal.
More than 50 woodpushers from across South East Asia saw action with each match was given a time of 30 minutes plus 30 seconds increment per player per move per game.
It was recalled that early this year, Victorias City-native Michael Ocido, also a former STI-West Negros University standout, ruled the just-concluded 8th HDBank Cup International Open Chess 2018 was held at the Army Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Ocido collected 7.5 points on six wins and three draws to win the nine-round Challengers section tournament.*
