Yoseph Theofilus Taher, the only untitled player in the open category of the Japfa ASEAN Chess Championship, has moved closer to attaining an International Master title after collecting a point on Saturday.

Attaining a certain number of norms, performance benchmarks in competitions including other titled players, is a requirement for a chess player seeking full title.

Saturday program included two rounds, with the 16-year-old player forcing Myanmar'€™s Wynn Zaw Htun to accept a draw in the sixth round before challenging top seed, fellow Indonesian Susanto Megaranto in the seventh round.

Yoseph has now amassed four points and, according to chief arbiter Bunawan, needs only another point to make it five before round nine, enough to claim his second IM norm.

He won his first norm in 2013 in Malaysia.

'€œI will just try to play as well as possible,'€ he told The Jakarta Post when asked about the prospect.

During the sixth-round match against Htun early in the day at Utut Adianto Chess School (SCUA), Yoseph once again showed his mettle on the chessboard.

Playing as black, Yoseph developed his English defense cunningly and was a pawn ahead as they entered the middle game. However, he did not see the possibility of a win as too promising, so he offered a draw, which Htun rejected.

Htun seemed to be relishing his own prospects and managed to open up an attacking corridor on the king'€™s side.

However, Yoseph cleverly neutralized the danger by forcing Htun to trade the queens in the 42nd move.

'€œHe was venturing to pile on pressure with his pair of bishops. I forced him to eliminate the queens to snuff out the danger,'€ he said.

'€œI couldn'€™t capitalize on my one pawn advantage because my king was not well protected,'€ he said. After 64 moves, Htun finally agreed to a draw with him finding no headway for a win.

The other five matches also ended in draws, leaving Yeoh Li Tian of Malaysia and Jan Emmanuel Garcia of Philippines still leading jointly with four points each up to sixth round.

Vietnamese duo Nguyen Ahn Khoi and Dao thien Hai, along with Yoseph, followed behind with 3.5 points.

In the seventh round game in the afternoon, Yoseph drew with Susanto after playing 22 moves of a modern game. Other matches were still in progress until late.

In the women'€™s category, Indonesia'€™s hopes for top honors were dealt a blow after Chelsie Monica Ignesias Sihite was defeated by Shania Mae Mendoza of Philippines in the sixth round.

Chelsie was two points behind co-leaders Shania and Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam, each with four points.

Chelsie looked shocked by the result and stopped short of providing an explanation.

'€œI lost. I don'€™t know why. It'€™s just a loss. Of course I want to do my best in this tournament. I prepared myself with training and my task is to try my hardest out there,'€ she said.

On the other hand, Mendoza was beaming with the victory.

'€œThe game was hard. My goal in this tournament is to get a Women'€™s International Master [title],'€ she said.

Mai Hung overcame Nur Najiha Azman Hisham while Janelle Mae Frayna tamed Citra Dewi to stay one point ahead of Chelsie.

The other two matches ended in a draw, which saw Nur Nabila Azman Hisham versing Bernadette Galas and Dita Karenza paired against Nur Abidah Shanti.

The matches in the seventh round continued on into the night.

The tournament, which features players from Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, will run until Dec. 30 with four rounds still to be played.

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