Manila, Aug. 10 -- Filipino Jan Clifford Labog topped the Under-2000 standard category in the Asian Amateur Chess Championship in Hong Kong on Saturday.

The native of Solano, Nueva Vizcaya registered seven wins and two draws to earn HK$12,000. He also secured a Candidate Masters title.

Labog defeated Hong Kong's Kyle Chen (Round 1), compatriots Johnny Wellem Carzano (Round 2) and Arena Grandmaster Almario Marlon Bernardino Jr. (Round 3), Kazakhstan FIDE Master Nurasyl Zhumabek (Round 4), Chinese Zhengcheng Liu (Round 5), Filipino Irwin Aton (Round 8), and Russian Egor Vlad Lovakov (Round 9). He settled for the draw with Chinese Wei Xu (Round 6) and Russian Mikhail Khmelev (Round 7).

Labog described his opponents as extremely competitiv...