Roberto, daughter Karen (middle), who graduated from Nursing in March, and wife Flor, a women's division champ in a 2006 tourney.
(Photo by Vilma Belgar)
CHESS AND MUSIC --
Pioneering the game in a tiny nation
Koror, Palau - On Feb. 04, 1992, I started to work in Palau as a keyboard player of Tropical Depression Band. Unfortunately, the band lasted only six months and I became the musician and Disc Jockey (DJ) of Image Restaurant for 13 years.
For 11 months, I was the keyboard player of Rose Garden Resort and 11 months also as pianist at 3 other Japanese restaurants. I am now the musician of Palau Royal Resort since June 01, 2007. I will be 54 years old on Jan. 02, 2010.
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I started playing chess in the early '70's and I was taught by a 7-year old boy (Rene Crisostomo), who always put out his queen early in every game. When I got better, I played and practiced with his uncle, the founder of Hagonoy Chess Club in Bulacan.
In 1990, I particiapted in the Philippine National Chess Championship and was seeded 218th with a rating of 1800. The top six finishers of that event represented the Philippines in the biannual World Chess Olympiad.
I was the champion of the Palau 2003 Senior and Junior Chess tournament and co-champion of the inaugural 2006 Ambassador Marino Cup. I scored 3 points in the 2006 Palau Invitational Chess Championship to get my international FIDE (World Chess Federation) rating of 1830.
The first ever chess tournament in Palau was organized by me and The Filipino Community in Palau Vice President Sergio Alemania. It was held on June 09, 2002 with 20 players participating (4 of them are women). It inspired me to see how many good players Palau has and still continue to do it for the love of the game.
I was elected chairman of the Knights and Rooks Chess Club (Palau) on Sept. 15, 2002 and Secretary/Treasurer of Palau Chess Federation. I have all the records of all my games in all tournaments held in Palau and some game records of other players who annotate their games.
In the 2005-2006 Rapid Chess tourney, I was the only one who wrote my games score despite the 30 minutes time control.
In the recently concluded Paquito Suringa Cup at the Palau Royal Resort, I also wrote my moves.
The Palau Chess Federation has been a member of FIDE since 2005. We can participate in FIDE-sanctioned tourneys and get ratings of local players if our tournament is FIDE rated like the ongoing 2009 Palau National Chess Championship.
The main problem in organizing this kind of tourney is the players' job schedule. That's why I applied the most flexible chess game schedule in the world. Players can play any day that they are available either at the tournament site or at PRR.
The first one of the most memorable chess experience was in the late '70's or early '80's when I played a friendly game against Asia's first Grandmaster (GM) Eugene Torre at Alemar's Bookstore in Makati.
He is promoting his book 'Beyond The 13th Move" but I bought that book the week before. I took another book on the shelves "Asian Zonal '72 Champion: Torre" and asked him to sign it.
During our game, I won a whole rook but forgot the safety of my own king and Eugene really showed how good he is.
The most memorable of my chess careeor was when I represented Palau to the Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Australia. I socialized with 4 GMs, more than a dozen International Masters (IM), FIDE Masters, Candidate Masters and other players from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
I experienced first hand how these masters played and discovered young and promising players of all ages. It truly improves my approach to the game of kings.
My third most memorable experience is my game with Juice Juice at chess.com where I was about to resign if he found the mate in two moves. He didn't! I still hanged on even with only 2 pawns against his rook and a pawn. When he resigned, that game became my best win among my more than 100 games. His rating is 2200.
My mission is to continue promoting chess in Palau especially to the kids as they are the future of this game. And maybe Palau can have its own FIDE Master, IM or even GM in the future.
I want also to participate in the World Chess Olympiad. We came close to competing in 2006 in Turin, Italy and 2008 in Dresden, Germany but failed due to financial constraints. We'll try again in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
Sources: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper Volume 19 Issue 08 February 22-28, 2010
The International Filipino
Volume 1 No. 2 December 16-31, 2009
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