Darwin Laylo

Darwin Laylo first made waves in the international chess scene when he participated in the 1999 edition of the Asian Junior Chess Championship held in Vung Tau City, Vietnam from September 12-25, 1999. Completely unknown and unranked in the tournament, Laylo finished runner-up to then Indian IM Krishnan Sasikiran scoring 8.0/11 just a half-point behind registering 7 wins (including 4 straight in the last 4 rounds), 2 draws and 2 losses. As an untitled player, he posted a very high Tournament Performance Rating (TPR) of 2502.[2]

Laylo won the Philippine national championship in 2004 and 2006. These wins earned him a place on the Philippine teams in the 2004 Calvià Olympiad and in 2006 Turin Olympiad.[3]

In 2006 he gained two GM norms, the first from the 3rd IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open (2006 Malaysian Open) and the second at the Bad Wiessee tournament in Germany and gained his third and final GM norm at the 7th Asian Chess Championship held in Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines.

At the 3rd IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Chess Championship held on August 21-27, 2006, Laylo tied for 1st-5th places by scoring 8.0/11 but ended up in 4th place after he lost out on tie-breaks to eventual winner GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam, fellow Filipino IM Oliver Dimakiling (2nd), GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (3rd) while Myanmar's GM Wynn Zaw Htun ended up in 5th place.

At the 2006 German International Open Chess Championship held in Bad Wiessee, Germany, Laylo tied for 3rd-20th places with then fellow IMs So, John Paul Gomez, Jayson Gonzales and Oliver Dimakiling, among others, ultimately ending up in 10th place after the tie-breaks. It was in the same tournament where IM So got his first GM norm at the age of 13 and Gomez became a full-fledged IM. Gonzales barely missed out on his 3rd and final GM norm as after computations his opponents' average rating was computed at 2373 while the required rating was 2381.[4]

His third and final norm came in the 7th Asian Chess Championship in Cebu, Philippines where he finished in 7th place scoring 7.5/11 with a high TPR of 2631.

Also in 2006, Laylo also participated in the 3rd Calvia Open, Spain where he tied for 20th-32nd places with among others fellow Filipino IMs So, Gomez and Dimakiling recording 5.5/9 on the strength of 5 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, 2 of which were inflicted by Super GMs Francisco Vallejo Pons (2674) and eventual winner Friso Nijboer (2641).[5] Laylo eventually ended up in 25th place after tiebreaks.[6]

Laylo placed in the top ten of the 2007 Asian Chess Championship, where he got his 3rd and final GM norm and also earning a place in the 2007 World Chess Cup, November, 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Seeded 113th out of 128 participants, Laylo was eliminated in the first round, 1½–½, by the French grandmaster Étienne Bacrot.

In 2008, he tied for 3rd-7th with Ashot Nadanian, Marat Dzhumaev, Dražen Sermek and Susanto Megaranto in the 5th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open Championship in Kuala Lumpur[7] scoring 8.0/11 on the strength of 6 wins, 4 draws and a solitary loss against GM Dzhumaev in the 7th round,[8] ultimately finishing in 5th place after tie-breaks just behind conqueror Dzhumaev and GM Megaranto.[9]

In 2009, he came first in the Zonal tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam played from July 23-29[10] scoring 8.0/9 going undefeated conceding only 2 draws in the 9-round Swiss System tournament with 7 wins and 0 loss for a very high Tournament Performance Rating (TPR) of 2795 and coming 1.5 points clear of second-placed Wesley So (6.5/9) who at present plays for the US Chess Federation. By virtue of this win, Laylo together with So earned berths in the 2009 World Cup.[11]

In 2010, Laylo, together with So, participated in the prestigious 9th (2010) Aeroflot Open which took place on February 8-19, 2010 in the Izmailovo Hotel (Gamma-Delta) in Moscow, Russia in the A1 Open Category for players with ELO rating of 2550 and above.[12] However, Laylo performed well below expectations as he only scored 0.5/7 posting only a single draw against GM Alexandre Danin and 6 losses[13] [14]

In 2012, Laylo won the 2012 Manila Open Chess Championships dubbed the Mayor's Cup, scoring 7.5/8 in the 8-round event sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), besting GM Antonio, Jr. and National Master (NM) Rolando Andador, who finished second and third, respectively, both scoring 7.0/8. He defeated fellow GMs Antonio and Paragua in the last 2 rounds to clinch the title.[15]

In 2014, Laylo finished tied for 3rd-5th places in the 2014 Hong Kong International Open Chess Championships held at the University of Hong Kong together with China's FIDE Master Zhang Xiaopeng and IM Manuel Pena Gomez of Spain, all three finishing with 7.0/9 in the 9-round Swiss System event. He posted 6 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss inflicted by GM Yu Ruiyuan of China in the 7th round as he eventually finished in 4th place after tie-breaks.[16]

At the 2017 Negros International Open held from October 11-19, 2017 at Ikthus Osbrown Hall, Bacolod City, Laylo tied for 9th-15th places, eventually placing 14th after tie-breaks, in the tournament won by Super GM Nigel Short. Laylo scored 5.5/9 registering 3 wins, 5 draws and a single loss.[17] [18]

On May 2, 2019, Laylo captured 2nd place at the 46th Selangor Open Chess 2019 held at the Cititel Midvalley Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after scoring 7.0/9 just behind compatriot IM Haridas Pascua. He actually ended up tied with Indonesian FIDE Master Pitra Andyka but Laylo got the runner-up honors by virtue of the winner-over-the-other rule after he trounced Andyka in the 5th round. Laylo went undefeated in the tournament, where he was seeded second, with 5 wins and 4 draws.[19] [20]

On May 15, 2019, Laylo finished runner-up in the SOE International Open tournament 2019 where he actually finished tied for 1st place with top seed GM Karthik Venkataraman of Indonesia, both going unbeaten with 7.5/9 on identical record of 6 wins and 3 draws but lost out in tie-breaks, 55-52.[21] [22]

On April 15 2020, Laylo topped the 4th leg of the Cesar Orbe Memorial (Online) Chess 960 Series where he went unbeaten in the 11-round tournament by scoring 7 wins and 4 draws as he bettered his 2nd place finish behind GM Antonio Jr. in the third leg of this 5-leg online chess series.[23] Laylo ultimately finished in 3rd place in the Chess 960 series after ending up 2nd in the fifth and final leg behind leg-winner and eventual champion Sander Severino (13 points) with 11 points where GM Antonio finished 2nd with 12 points.[24]

On June 8, 2020, Laylo beat fellow GM Antonio in the race-to-15 Online Bullet Chess, 15-13, earning for him the P20,000.00 first prize and avenging his loss to the same player, 2.5-6.5, in their first encounter in 2019. After the first 14 games, Laylo was only ahead by a point, 7.5-6.5, when he strung together 5 straight wins that proved enough to cushion a furious fightback from Antonio.[25]

• Darwin Laylo player profile and games at Chessgames.com