(1054) WHO WILL BE PALAU No. 8th, 9th and 10th TOP CHESS PLAYERS? (TBN-Aug. 31, 2015)

TIED AT 3RD PLACE

                  Paquito ‘Pax’ Suringa, Jr., left, and Roberto Hernandez, both working at Palau Royal Resort, finished tied at 3^rd place in the recently concluded 2015 Palau Rapid Chess Championship, where Roberto is the defending champion. After computing the tiebreak systems, Roberto accumulated more tiebreak points to emerge at 3^rd.                                                              (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

   WHO WILL BE PALAU No. 8th, 9th 

    and 10th TOP CHESS PLAYERS?

 

THE PALAU Chess Federation will hold a 3-week non-FIDE rated tournament to determine the next generation of top 8^th, 9^th and 10^th chess players of Palau through a rapid chess format with either Swiss system or round-robin defending on the number of participants.

If the participants will reach 15, it will be a Swiss system and round-robin if there are 10 or less entrants. The top 3 finishers will join Palau top 7 – 1. NM, FI Roberto Hernandez 2. NM, NI Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. 3. NM, NI Tito Cabunagan 4. CM Bernardo Garcia 5. NI Jeff Balbalosa 6. NI Dennis Gonzales and 7. DI Paquito Suringa, Jr.

                The possible contestants in this event are 1. Felix Oling 2. Allan Alcid 3. Manuel Mahor, Jr. 4. Arnolfo Inres 5. Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. 6. Nilo de Jesus 7. Sofronio “Pons” Mahor 8. Glen Navarroza 9. Eugene Labarda 10. John Mark Tamayo 11. Josef Karlo Moyet 12. Neph Macasaet.

            Mahor, Jr., Escapatoria, De Jesus and Labarda are the perennial candidates for the last 3 spots that will complete the Top 10 list of challengers to the crown of Cyril’s National Chess Championship plum. The event will start on Sept. 13, 20 and 27 with 3 games to be played every week in rapid chess format of 25 minutes for each player to finish the game with an increment of 10 seconds.

            Registration fee is only $5.00 and there will be cash prizes for the top 3 finishers and medals. Jeff is on a one and a half months vacation and he taught Roberto, Dennis and Cyril how to use the Swiss Perfect software for the coming event. 

            During his vacation, he and Tito Cabunagan will participate in the 2015 Datu Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in September at Kuala Lumpur. When they come back, the 2015 Palau National Chess Championship will commence.

            In the Marianas Variety Sports page of Friday July 21, 2006, the 2^nd youngest GM in history was featured: “Parimarjan Negi became India’s youngest Grandmaster when he achieved the 3^rd and final GM norm at the recently held Chelyabinsk region superfinal championship in Satka, Russia.

            Negi became a GM at the age of 13 years, 3 months and 22 days. His compatriot Pentala Harikrishna was awarded the title when he was 15, breaking Vishy Anand’s 14-year Indian record of 18 years. But Negi also broke Norwegian Magnus Carlsen’s record by 5 days to become the 2^nd youngest GM in chess history. 

            Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin, who achieved this feat at the age of 12 years and 7 months, remains the world’s youngest. Negi attained his IM title in December last year and has been able to ‘upgrade’ to GM within short span of six months.

            His recently hired coach, British GM Nigel Short, said, he himself is a former child prodigy, “When Anand  became a GM at the age of 18, “he was considered very young at the time—he was one of the youngest ever—but arguably these perceptions need to be recalibrated. In fairness, it should be pointed out that the goalposts have been moved somewhat in the intervening decades: one might justly say that they are now considerably wider that even the England football team might score. Nevertheless, even a things-were-better-in-my-day curmudgeon such as myself has to acknowledge the profound strength of today’s generation. The laptop—that omnipresent learning tool—was bound to have an impact sooner or later.” 

            In March 25, 2008, at 7:47pm, FIDE Master (FM) Eric Schiller, submitted the following: NICKY NIP: Master at 9!   Nicky Nip of San Francisco is America’s youngest master ever, still just 9 years old (the picture is from 2006). He earned the title in tournaments and matches such as the one in December where he beat me 4-2. He has a FIDE rating of over 2100 which is consistent with his USCF rating of 2207.

            On the next issue, I’ll feature some more young chess players.

            Solution to last week’s puzzle No. 3783: 1. Qg6!! fxg6 2. Rxg7+ Kf8 3. Nxg6 mate.

             This week’s puzzle No. 3784: White to move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)


Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
                  Tia Belau Newspaper
                  Pages 9-10
                  Volume 24
                  Issue 70
                  August 31, 2015


                  Marianas Variety
                  64 By Zaldy Dandan
                  Pages 40-41
                  Friday, July 21, 2006