MANILA, Philippines – Filipino Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So lost his 4th round match against Indian GM Adhiban B. using the disadvantageous black pieces in the 4th round of the Asian Continental Individual chess championship in Mashhad, Iran on Thursday.

With the loss, So is stuck with 2 points.

He is now tied for the 21st to 34th place along with compatriot GMs Mark Paragua and John Paul Gomez.

Paragua drew his 4th game with GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakshtan using the black pieces while Gomez split the point with International Master (IM) Das Debashis of India using the white pieces.

IM Oliver Barbosa, meantime, defeated Fide Maser (FM) Al-Ali Hussein Ali Hussein of Iraq to raise his total to 2.5 points, the same output of fellow Filipino GM Darwin Laylo, who settled for a truce with GM Zhao Jun of China.

Barbosa and Laylo are now tied for 8th to 20th place.

The Top 4 finishers in the annual tournament will earn rights to represent Asia in the 2011 World Cup scheduled in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia later this year. -- By Marlon Bernardino