HERNANDEZ, VILLA WIN
2ND CHAMPIONSHIP
THE championship match that took place on Saturday, April 28 at Jean's Boutique and Store had all the excitement of a chess match that you can expect.
Quality moves, well-analyzed variations, traps, tactics and strategies played a vital part that in the end, the player who made the slightest mistake can lose him the game and the title.
In Tony Villa's case, a loss will give him a share of the title but for 4th seed Roberto Hernandez, a loss will put him in a distant 3rd place finish.
Knowing that Villa will be playing the white pieces in his last game, Hernandez prepared and studied many games by Asia's first Grandmaster Eugene Torre with the black pieces using the Pirc or Yugoslav Defence.
Torre used this elastic defence in 1974 World Chess Olympiad in Nice, France where he won the silver medal at board 1 for the Philippine squad that earned him the elusive Grandmaster title, a first for an Asian player.
On the 7th move, Hernandez declined the poisoned pawn sacrifice that Villa is offering and castle his king instead to safety.
A battle of positioning in the queenside ensued and Hernandez was able to have a pawn-chain up to the 6th rank.
Then the battle shifted to the kingside where Villa missed a very neat knight that would have shattered Hernandez' position against any variation.
Villa lost the exchange on the 34th move where he should have played the stronger Qh6, forcing the exchange of queens.
After Hernandez gobbled 2 of Villa's pawns, Villa resigned when he sees his position hopeless and his last trap was foiled by a simple king move.
The remaining games of the final day were not played and 6 players played a blitz chess tourney instead.
The players were Villa, Menandro Manuel, Hernandez, venue host Gene Pastrana, Koror State Legal Counsel Craig Dittrich and latecomer Manny Nedic.
Villa gave an odd of 5 minutes for him and 10 minutes to the others except Dittrich, who got 15 minutes.
It didn't matter much to Villa as he captured another blitz title while Hernandez finished only the 1st round of the double round-robin event as he has to work at 6:00pm.
On Wednesday, May 03, the Nedic-Pastrana final match will be played.
If Nedic will win, he will share the title with Villa and Hernandez, who last won a championship in December 2003.
Villa's first title in Palau was the 2006 Rapid Chess tournament.
The other unfinished matches are between Dittrich and Cyril Montel, Jr. and Pastrana vs. Montel, Jr., where the latter still has a chance to take 4th place if he will beat both Pastrana and Dittrich.
The next tournament, sponsored by The Filipino Community In Palau (TFCP) is now being prepared and will be held at the Migrants Center For Workers beside the Catholic Church.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Page 13
Volume 17
May 04-10, 2007
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