FILIPINO Oliver Dimakiling settled for a second-place finish after missing out on a third and final Grandmaster (GM) norm in the Grand Copthorne Professor Lim Kok Ann Invitational GM tournament in Singapore on Saturday.
Denied the last norm that would have pushed him closer to becoming a GM following a heartbreaking eighth and penultimate-round defeat, the 42-year-old International Master from Davao City salvaged some measure of pride with a win over Myanmar’s IM Wynn Zaw Htun in the last round to claim No. 2.
Overall, the player popularly called “Dimaks” tallied six points on five wins, two draws and the same number of losses.
GM Tin Jingyao of Singapore topped the event with seven points despite absorbing a final-round beating at the hands of GM Daniel Howard Fernandez of England.
It could have been a better had Mr. Dimakiling, who claimed his two norms in the 2006 Dato Arthur Tan Malaysia Open and the 2012 Battle of the GMs in Boracay, obtained that final GM result.
That would have left Mr. Dimakiling to just reach the 2500-rating plateau to become a full-pledged GM as his rating is already at 2439.9 including the whopping 19.9 points he obtained recently. — Joey Villar