NOT
A single game was played in this week's rapid chess competition within
the Palau Royal Resort's employees at Dormitory 1 as most of
participating players are busy or have played already the available
players.
Zaldy
Ranopa had not played a single game in Class A division and whenever he
said that he will play to anyone that's available, nobody believes him
anymore as he said it more that ten times.
In
the Class B division, the top contenders are still waiting for the
final results with chief cook Arnold Rivera leading Romy Cayanan, Morris
Apresto and Francis Diesta.
The
invited player Chat Miraflor is still busy even on his day off
(Wednesday). The same as the other invited player in Class A division
Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II.
I
would like to share the story behind the 1991 Berean Bible Baptist
Church Chess tournament held from February 24 - March 24, 1991.
It was a 5-round Swiss system tournament participated by 20 chess players around Muntinlupa City in the Philippines.
I
lost my first round game to Leandro Valdez but won the next 4 to finish
1st runner-up to eventual champion Angelo Agbuya, who was the National
Games (Palarong Pambansa) regional champion.
Valdez
is complaining at the time of awarding that he defeated me and he
didn't finish in the top 5. The question is: after beating me, how did
he perform in his last 4 games?
My last game against Ramon Ragas was a cliffhanger and controversial in my own perspective...
Playing
the black pieces, I needed a win to land at least 1st runner-up and can
be the champion depending on the outcome of the other crucial match.
I preferred the Dutch Defence, which I have used successfully in other tournaments in Philippines and Palau.
With a few seconds remaining in my clock, I was able to promote the c pawn to have 2 queens and mated Ragas on the 62nd move.
If
my time expires, I will lose that game and I will not finish in the top
5. If I drew that game, I can be no better that 4th place.
After
the game, the arbiter checked how much time I have left in my clock.
And it's just a mere 7 seconds that separated me between my first chess
trophy!
The
controversial part is that the arbiter let our game to be finished
before setting the other crucial game between the other 2 contenders.
Now, Agbuya has to win his game against his opponent as a draw will make me the champion. And he did!
I think something is wrong about it. It's also a good feeling that my practice partner Gary Galang finished 4th.
And
during the awarding ceremony, the Muntinlupa City Mayor Ignacio Bunye,
now the Presidential Speaker of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal
Arroya, awarded the trophies and little cash prizes from his own pocket
to the winners.
I was asked to perform a special piano performance during the awarding.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
April 04-10, 2008
FRANCIS
Diesta has 2 more remaining games in the Class B division of Palau
Royal Resort Rapid Chess Tournament against invited player Chat
Miraflor, who has played only 2 games in more than a month.
Diesta
showed good quality games and a potential master candidate if he will
concentrate more on positional play, tactics and practical play.
If
Diesta can sweep Miraflor, he is still in contention for the top 4
spot. It will also depend on the performance of top three Arnold Rivera,
Romy Cayanan and Morris Apresto.
No game was played within this week in the Class B division as most players enjoy the payday week in other activities.
But in Class A, Elizalde Madrinan finally scored half point after a string of losses and did it via 3-move repetition.
He
sacrificed a rook to obtain a draw position and would not like to take
chances with 3 pawns against a rook endgame against Paul Garcia.
That
game was already recorded last week as a victory for Garcia, but
according to them, it's just a practice game and not official.
Garcia
suffered his 4th loss when Arnel Pama, the elected Chairman of King
Royal Chess Club of PRR, combined tactics and patient play to subdue the
improved offensive and defensive plays of Garcia.
As
the 2008 National Chess Championship is tentatively set on April 27,
2008, the Group A against Group B team match-up will be postponed.
Jan Berglund, the International Arbiter and trainer will be coming on April 24 via Continental Airlines from Manila.
He will be joining the National Chess Championship to get the potential team players' strengths and weaknesses.
As
group training is not possible, he will do the individual training of
possible Palau team players to participate in the World Chess Olympiad
to be held in Dresden, Germany on November 12-25, 2008.
PRR
top players Roberto Hernandez, Jaime Guevarra, Dennis Lara, Pama and
Eli are all interested to join the National Chess Championship to get
World Chess Federation (FIDE) international rankings as Mr. Berglund
already notified FIDE that the said event will be rated.
He
is also working on a possibility of having Palau be a CACDEC chess
playing country to have the benefits of not paying tournament fees,
world competition fees and other benefits such as chess sets, clocks and
equipments.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
March 28-April 03, 2008
NEOPHYTE
chess player Jess David is currently having the best record in the
ongoing Palau Royal Resort Rapid Chess Tournament with a 4-1-0
win-loss-draw record after nipping another newcomer Armand Lelis last
week.
Mark
Apresto is still leading their division despite a setback from the
surging Francis Diesta, who scored another victory from erstwhile leader
Edgar Cayanan.
David used to watch Class A players practicing and learned his lessons from their styles, strengths and weaknesses.
Class
C top seed Randy 'Buhawi' Sioson swept Cayanan in their 3-game series.
He won the 1st game.With the 2nd game headed for a draw, they decided
to disregard the draw and play for win.
With the loss, Cayanan scored only half point in 5 games after winning his first four.
The
same thing happened to Jaime Guevarra in last year's rating chess
tourney of PRR where he scored 3 straight and didn't score a whole point
in his last 4 games.
Diesta
showed his top form as he dealt Mark his 3rd loss of the event. Other
Class C players Morris Apresto, Romy Cayanan, Arnold Rivera and invited
player Chat Miraflor didn't play a single game last week despite
Miraflor's day off on Wednesday.
With Mark Apresto leaving on March 12, he needs to play all his remaining games to avoid default losses.
He
is still in contention for the title and it will depend on the
performance of David, Diesta, the two Cayanans and his brother Morris.
Only
one game was played in the Class B division. It is the first game of
Darwin Nisperos against Paquito Pax' Suringa, Jr., who has yet to win a
game after 3 tries.
With
his cautious play, Nisperos build a bewildering attack in the king side
but blundered badly in the endgame that lead to his downfall with his
4-pawn advantage against a bishop.
Class B top seed Abrahan 'Abe' Francisco withdraw from the tournament and concentrate more against 14 opponents at Chess.com.
There
is a plan to include players of Class B to Class A as most players in
that class have the talents higher than that of Class B.
Class
A top seed Roberto Hernandez outwitted 5th seed Paul Garcia in less
than 30 moves of Pirc Defence where Garcia lost a minor piece in the
middle game.
By the time that he recovered the piece, Hernandez already weaved a mating net to force his resignation facing a mate in two.
Garcia bounced back from defeat and dealt Hernandez his 2nd loss with a masterful handling of a pair of bishop.
Even during practice, Garcia showed much improvement as he also defeated blitz chess specialist Tony Villa three weeks ago.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
March 07-13, 2008
ON
A 7-game winning streak, Mark Apresto, with a 10-2-0 win-loss-draw
record, grab the leadership in the Class C division of Palau Royal
Resort Rapid Chess Tournament held at Dormitory 1 last week.
He
swept Delfin 'Scanamus' Mallare(1-9-0) and Armand Lelis (3-9-0)
convincingly and clobbered invited player Chat Miraflor (0-2-0) last
Wednesday.
He subdued Francis Diesta (1-2-1) on Monday night and dealt the 3rd loss of his brother Morris (5-3-0) on the same night.
With the way he is playing, he is on his way to his first chess title before going home in a few weeks.
Erstwhile
Class C leader Edgar Cayanan (4-2-1) suffered 2 setbacks from Morris
and drew with Diesta in a seesaw battle that had both players seizing
the initiative and ended in a stalemate.
Morris
nipped Miraflor, who played only 2 games on his day off (Wednesday).
Lelis swept Mallare and won by time forfeit over Morris, who learned his
lesson about using the time clock properly and bounced back to defeat
Lelis.
First
week leader and top seed Randy 'Buhawi' Sioson (7-5-0) played 2 games
in one week after playing 10 games last week and swept Lelis to fall one
step behind in standings.
Romy
Cayanan (4-2-0) scored 4 straight wins over Lelis and Mallare but lost
to Morris while Jess David, the remaining player with the least loss,
didn't play a single game to stay at 3-1-1 slate.
Arnold
Rivera, the PRR Cafeteria chief cook, confirmed his participation and
scored a victory over Lelis and lost one game to Morris in a hectic week
of Class C encounters.
The opposite happened in Class B where no games were played between the 8 participants.
In
the Class A division, Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II lost 2 games to Dennis
Lara and the 2 Roberts of Class A suffered their first loss in
contrasting fashion.
Top
seed Roberto Hernandez was ahead in his late night action against Lara
when he blundered away his queen and eventually lost.
The other Robert, Robert 'Tube Ice' Tubice was outplayed by 2nd seed Jaime Guevarra earlier in the night.
The
cash prize of the recently concluded Rapid Chess tournament of Palau's
top players were already given to the champions Manny Nedic and Tony
Villa ($25.00 and $20.00 respectively).
Third place Cyril Montel, Jr. ($15.00), 4th place Roberto Hernandez and 5th place Gene Pastrana ($10.00 each).
Pastrana proposed that the next tournament to have Group A vs. Group B
Proposed
composition of Group A are Tony Villa, Cyril Montel, Jr., Jose Omega,
Gene Pastrana, Dennis Lara, Paul Garcia and Dennis Gonzales.
The
Group B will have Menandro Manuel, Manny Nedic, Roberto Hernandez,
Craig Dittrich, Jaime Guevarra, Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II and Jimboy de
Jesus.
Players in Group A will play only players from Group B and the registration fee is $20.00 to be given to the group winners.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
February 29-March 06, 2008
