by Marlon Bernardino

PHILIPPINE chess wizard and US based Julia Sevilla pocketed the top honors in the 2018 Porter Ranch President's Day Open Chess Championship last February 17, 2018 was held at Porter Ranch, San Fernando Valley Region in Los Angeles, California, United States.

The 16-year-old Sevilla collected three points on three wins and a loss to win the four-round tournament.

Sevilla was yielded to Arnel Odero in the first round but came back with three straight wins at the expense of Danilo Jorda, Alireza Fallahi and Jesse Turner enroute the coveted title.

Actually, Sevilla and Turner ended up similar 3.0 points each, however Sevilla took the title with a superior tie break points. United States Chess Federation (USCF) master Ruben Ondangan, a Filipino Pastor in Lancaster, California won third place after edging fellow 2.5 pointers another United States Chess Federation (USCF) master Craig Anderson in a tie break points.

Rounding up to the top 10 were Arnel Odero, Eric Andy Woo, Alireza Fallahi,
Fernando Sevilla, Antonio Alindogan Jr. and Danilo Jorda.

Last July, Sevilla won a $12,000 year scholarship, if she wants it, to attend Webster University in St. Louis after topping the SPF Girls’ Invitational tournament, named after world chess champ Susan Polgar.

Last September, Sevilla competed in the 2017 World Youth Chess Championship. Out of 60 competitors, she finished 34th place. Sevilla began playing chess at the age of 10 and has been playing in international tournaments since the age of 12.

She hopes to compete in the 2018 World Youth, which will be hosted in Halkidiki, Greece.-Marlon Bernardino-