A promising Filipino chess player took the Chinese Taipei Chess Association International Open Tournament 2024 by storm, beating players from other countries older than her.
National Master Nika Juris Nicolas, only 11 but has been trained to compete in the boys division in local tournaments, topped the under-13 Open Standard and under-13 Open Blitz in the international competition held in Taoyuan, Taiwan from July 22 to 27.
She also bagged the overall championship in the merged under-13 and under-15 age categories for boys and girls in the Standard event but settled for third place honors in the Blitz side of the merged divisions.
She was the only girl in the open divisions to have made the podium.
Nicolas finished with 7.0 points in Standard on account of 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss.
She defeated Min-Hao Lin of Chinese-Taipei in the first round, Shao-Yen Hung of Chinese-Taipei in the second round, Enzo Wang of Canada in the fourth round, Hao-Xuan Huang of Chinese-Taipei in the fifth round, Yu-En Yen of Chinese-Taipei in the seventh round and Yu Chen Cheng of Chinese-Taipei in the ninth and final round.
She split the point with Arena FIDE Master Hao Chen Yung of Chinese-Taipei in the sixth round and Yu-Chi Xavier Wang of Chinese-Taipei in the eighth round.
Her only setback was against Rainen Yi-Fan Simpson of Chinese-Taipei in the third round.
In the Open Blitz, the chess prodigy from Victory Christian International School tallied 7 wins and 2 losses.
She defeated Adrian Tung Jan of Chinese-Taipei in round 1, Hung-Chuan Chiu of Chinese-Taipei in round 2, Cheng-Yan Yang of Chinese-Taipei in round 3, Chen- Hao Wu of Chinese-Taipei in round 4, Nok Hang Jonathan Ho of Hong Kong in round 5, Lourecel Hernandez Ecot of the Philippines in round 7 and Howard Sun of the United States in Round 8.
She, however, bowed to International Master Adelard Bai of Chinese-Taipei in round 6 and International Master Raymond Kaufman of Canada in the final round.
"I would like to dedicate my victory to my countrymen. It's an honor to represent our country," said Nicolas, who also cited the support of her parents to her chess campaign here and abroad.
"We're very proud of what she has accomplished and I think she's representative of the quality of the younger generation," said her mother, Nikki de Vega, who is also the legal adviser of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines.
Nicolas is the country's only female player who has a National Master title.
To note, the National Master title is different and more difficult to achieve than the Woman National Master title.
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