Eugenio 'Gene' Pastrana, 2nd from right, is checking the equipment and time clock of the game between Xyron Singson and his youngest son Geaury Ken Pastrana during the middle rounds of the hectic 2005-2006 Palau Rapid Chess Championship being held at the premises of his Jean's Boutique and Store. In the middle is Jielton Cabierte and coming from crossing the road is Parinas. The elder Pastrana will host the 2006 Palau National Chess Championship that will start on March 19.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
PASTRANA'S 1st AND ONLY BLITZ TITLE
THERE ARE a lot of blitz chess competition in Palau that
Eugenio Pastrana had joined but he never finished at the top in any of them
except in the pre-National Chess Championship (2006) Blitz Chess competition
that was held in his Jean’s Boutique and Store on March 05, 2006.
As
usual, it’s a double round-robin format with 10 minutes time control (no
increment because Palau Chess Federation is using mechanical clocks at that
time).
Registration fee is peg at $5.00 with the champion/s keeping the half of
it and the other half will be spent for drinks of players. In some occasions,
the drinks were already consumed and the tourney is not yet finished. Some
players, like Manuel Nedic, Consul General Julius Torres, and Eddie Grefiel
have spent their champions’ purse to buy another round of drinks for players or
whatever the cost of the rest of the purse.
The
participants are Pastrana, Roberto Hernandez, Cyril Montel, Jr., blitz chess
specialist Edwin Eti and Jimmy ‘the Drunken Master’ Valenzuela. Because of the
small purse for the champion ($12.50), it was decided no drinks will be given
to the players while playing and the champion/s will keep all the cash prizes.
Pastrana
got his first ever chess title (in any time control) with a 5-1-2 win-loss-draw
record. BUT, Hernandez tied him for top honor with a 6-2-0 slate. All blitz
tourneys in Palau don’t use tie break with the tied players splitting the cash,
which happened to Eugenio and Roberto.
Eti
finished the tilt with 3-5-0 card while Montel, Jr. and Valenzuela sported an
identical 2-5-1 record. The blitz tourney was held 2 weeks prior to the opening
round of 2006 PNCC.
PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP
BLITZ TOURNEY
March
05, 2006
Double
Round Robin
Players
Win Loss Draw Total
- GENE PASTRANA 5 1 2 6
- ROBERTO HERNANDEZ 6 2 0 6
- EDWIN ETI 3 5 0 3
- CYRIL MONTEL, JR. 2 5 1 2.5
- JIMMY VALENZUELA 2 5 1 2.5
Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 9-10
Volume 15
Issue 10
March 03-10, 2006
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