Chinese Grandmaster Zhou Jianchao and No. 11 seed GM Zhao Jun streaked to their third straight wins while Filipino sensation, Grandmaster Wesley So, was held to a draw in the third round of the first Florencio Campomanes Memorial Cup chess Championships Monday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

So, the country’s highest-rated player, settled for a draw with GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia to raise his score to 2.5 points and lead a big group of players still in the hunt for the $10,000 top prize in the nine-round tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) in honor of the late great Filipino chess leader.

Also with 2.5 points were Filipino International Masters Rolando Nolte, Barlo Nadera and Richard Bitoon.

Nolte drew with the sixth seeded GM Li Chao of China, the 30th ranked Nadera halved the point with fifth seed GM Chanda Sandipan of India and Bitoon beat Mari Joseph Turqueza in an all-Filipino encounter.

Zhou trounced No. 12 GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran while Zhao subdued fourth seed GM Ni Hua in an all-Chinese showdown.

Joining So, Nolte, Bitoon and Nadera were Gagunashvili, Li, and GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan and GM Ling Diren of China.

Twenty-players, led by top seed GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, newly-crowned Pichay Cup champion GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan and Asia’s first GM Eugene Torre, share 11th to 32nd places with two points apiece.