(1298) LITTLE KNOWLEDGE IS DANGEROUS

THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A MAN WHO KNOWS A LOT OF EVERYTHING AND A MAN WHO KNOWS A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING...CM Joselito Marcos, left, and Paquito 'Porma' Suringa, Jr. at the 2016 Baku Chess Olympiad.

               LITTLE KNOWLEDGE
                   IS DANGEROUS 
 

WHEN I posted on Facebook “NEWEST MEMBER of PCF—Mother and Son”, I featured for the first time Jennifer Angeles and her son Aome (abbreviation of Apple of My Eye). Like what I used to do to new members, I have photos of them and ask for their birthdates, email addresses and tel. numbers (mobile and landline) for Palau Chess Federation record, for inclusion to the website http://palau-chess.blogspot.com and most of all—SO THAT OTHER MEMBERS WHO WANT TO CONTACT THEM FOR POSSIBLE OFFICIAL GAMES/PRACTICES/PREPARATIONS AND KNOWING CHESS AND PLAYERS BETTER.

                Just a few days ago (Nov. 16, 2016 at 11:37am to be exact), Rustum Cabuso asked me, “Kuya Robert, what is the number of Jun Mahor? He is my opponent on Sunday, isn’t it? I’ll ask him if we can play our game tonight at Palau Royal Resort.” I replied with 778-2785.

                There are more or less 100 requests like these to me—asking me if so and so is available on this date and time; then I will text that player and refer back to the one who ask. If there is complication, I’ll text again each of them until they agreed on a day and time. Although a text costs only .06 cents, if it accumulated, that’s already some amount aside from wasting my time because they can do it themselves and just inform me of the agreed date.

                I started to refuse doing that in Dec. 2014 with Palau’s most successful chess player Menandro Manuel. I asked him to please contact those players that he hadn’t played yet and I give him the numbers of those chess players and I will provide the chess materials to the place they agreed on.

                To save more time and money, I started to post also the tel. numbers of new members of PCF on Nov. 16, 2016. But one ‘critic’, Ojhea Perdon, wrote “I think it is not right to make her contact info public.” I respect her opinion. Six hours and 5 minutes later, Edna Pineda wrote “I agree”.

                ALL PALAU CHESS PLAYERS INFO ARE PUBLIC.

                Ms. Ojhea is listed as the 217^th member of Palau Chess Federation with complete name of Perdon, Ojhea Mae Figueroa; FIDE I. D. No. 16600835 with a Standard rating of 1228. I don’t know her email address, tel. number and date of birth so there’s no record of those. These are the links:

http://palau-chess.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/palau-chess-federation-members.html  

http://palau-chess.blogspot.com/2012/02/palau-chess-federation-players-names.html

                Five years ago, I was warned by Koror State Legal Counsel Craig Dittrich not to use his name, email address, tel. numbers and other information in connection with Palau Chess Federation because he left Palau for good. HOW CAN I DO THAT? He is a part of the History of Chess in Palau. Having been participated in 2006 Rapid Chess Tournament; 2006 Ambassador Marino Cup’s Rated Division finishing 8^th with 2 wins, 7 losses and a draw; 2007 PNCC (Jan. 28-May 5) 4-4-1 record for 4.5 points; 2007 Palau Invitational Chess Championship in Sept. where he dealt top seed Boris Michael Diez his only loss; 2007-2008 Open Rapid Chess Tournament (Nov. 18, 2007-Feb. 10, 2008) where he finished 10^th with 13-15-2 slate for 14 points; a couple of blitz chess contests where we give him extra 5 minutes because he’s used to longer time control and the unfinished 2008 PNCC.

                History of Chess in Palau is not complete without Craig Dittrich, the 101^st member of PCF, born in May 23, 1956; FIDE I. D. No. 16600081; Standard rating of 1569; tel. nos. 775-1091/779-7546; email addresses –xgatorx@yahoo.com craigdittrich@gmail.com And the first American to have FIDE rating in Palau. He can play in any tournament in the world representing Palau unless he will change federation.

                The same situation applies to Ms. Ojhea, Jennifer Angeles and Aome Jacob Angeles: History of Chess in Palau is not complete without the inclusion of even the newest, oldest or with very few information gathered from its members.

                Because of this open to public PCF website, Ms. Ojhea’s profile has been viewed 1,320 times in the first link above and 944 from the 2^nd link. As of 10:48am, Friday, Nov. 18, 2016 http://palau-chess.blogspot.com was viewed 239,512 times by 131 countries.

                The “Little Knowledge is Dangerous” phrase was shared to me by CM Joselito Marcos of Papua New Guinea. Being the most knowledgeable person I ever knew, his knowledge and wisdom derived from extensive reading and studies since childhood inspired me to follow what my father told me: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.”

                The “Little Knowledge is Dangerous” is applied to Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. for arguing about the Swiss Perfect software where he has no idea how it works; to Paquito Suringa, Jr. for not knowing even one single defense in chess and going to Chess Olympiad without a single chess equipment (chess board, clock, laptop, clothes that's good for only 2 days at the 14-day Olympiad); to Tito Cabunagan for annotating his games in English notation when there are captures; and to Eugenio Pastrana, for not knowing and yet not following the FIDE Laws of Chess. There are so many more people who have little knowledge of a subject/thing/fact/statistic and all things that you could think of but acted like they are ‘experts’ in that field. THAT’S DANGEROUS!

                Being 61 years old will not stop me from learning new and old things from a friend, MY BEST FRIEND FOREVER, who is worth more than a thousand ordinary friends!

Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
                  Tia Belau Newspaper
                  December 29, 2002 -- November 19, 2016

                  Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
                  The Beginning of Chess in Palau
                  By Roberto Hernandez
                  Soon to be published as a book

                  Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
                  Tia Belau Newspaper
                  March 15, 2012 -- April 18, 2013
                  http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
                  April 25, 2013 -- November 19, 2016

                  Memoirs of a Chess Amateur
                  My Most Memorable Games and Compositions
                  By CM Joselito Marcos

                  The History of Chess in Palau
                  By Roberto Hernandez
                  June 09, 2002 -- November 19, 2016
     

   

               

(1195) 2011 NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP SET IN JUNE 26-SEPT. 25 (TBN-May 16, 2011)

Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
             Tia Belau Newspaper
             Pages 12-13
             Volume 20
             Issue 20
             May 16, 2011

(1183) FIDE Ratings of Palau Players Published (TBN-July 05-11, 2010)

Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
             Tia Belau Newspaper
             Pages 13 & 15
             Volume 19
             Issue 27
             July 05-11, 2010

(1155) PASTRANA'S 1st AND ONLY BLITZ TITLE (TBN-March 03-10, 2006)

PASTRANA SUPERVISING THE 12 YEARS AND UNDER DIVISION OF 2005-2006 CHESS TILT
     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

1. GENE PASTRANA                                                   5        1         2              6
2. ROBERTO HERNANDEZ                                        6        2         0              6
3. EDWIN ETI                                                               3        5         0              3
4. CYRIL MONTEL, JR.                                               2        5         1            2.5
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

(1018) MONTEL, MANUEL JOIN OTHER TOP 10 OCEANIA OTHER PLAYERS

PALAU Chess Federation now has two players among the top ten chess players in Oceania other than Australia and New Zealand. Cyril Tomas Montel Jr with a rating of 1943 was listed as number 8 while his compatriot Menandro Manuel, rated 1922, was on 9th spot.

The list include countries such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Palau and Guam. The last named country has recently been accepted as the newest member of the Oceania zone.

In another list, Palau Angie Parrado (1551) and Karen Lee (1250) were listed as the only active rated women in other Oceania countries.

(Source: Australasian Chess Magazine, March 2012 issue)

Karen Lee is not sure if she can make it to 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. Financial constraints is the first obstacle she has to tackle, that is the expensive airfare. Good luck to you in finding sponsors.

Photo by: Roberto Hernandez

Angie Parrado was listed as one of the only two active rated women player in other Oceania countries. She had a controversial game here against Palau's No. 4 Gene Pastrana regarding another touch move violation by Gene.
 

        Photo by: Roberto Hernandez

Menandro Manuel in deep thought against Joselito Marcos. He defeated Marcos to tie him for the title of 3rd Palau Invitational International Chess Championship --Dec. 14-19, 2011 in the City of Koror, Palau.

Photo by: Jamie Kirstie Marcos

Palau top player Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. poses for a profile picture before the start of his game.

      (Photo by Joselito Marcos)

(1011) 28 PALAU CHESS PLAYERS ARE LISTED AT www.fide.com (TBN-Feb. 20, 2012)

 HERE'S THE list of 28 Palau chess players listed in the World Chess Federation (FIDE) website with their full name, current international rating, date of birth and FIDE Identification number:

1.       Roberto Hernandez                     (1875)     01/02/1956         #16600010

2.       Menandro Manuel                      (1922)     02/26/1951         #16600029

3.       Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr.               (1943)    08/01/1970          #16600037

4.       Manny Nedic                *              (1830)    10/02/1960          #16600045

5.       Jose Omega*                                (1870)    12/23/1973          #16600053

6.       Eugenio Pastrana                         (1702)    12/25/1955          #16600061

7.       Craig Dittrich *                              (1569)    05/23/1956`         #16600081

8.       Bernardo Garcia                           (1663)    10/08/1976          #16600096

9.       Manuel Mahor, Jr.                       (1646)    12/26/1970          #16600100

10.    Elpidio Manaligod                        (1516)    03/28/1973          #16600118

11.    Michael Mercado                        (1629)    03/10/1980          #16600126

12.    Paquito Suringa, Jr.                      (1734)    03/02/1973          #16600134

13.    Jerry Sermeno*                           ( ------)    11/08/1975          #16600142

14.    Dennis Gonzales                           (1600)    09/15/1978          #16600150

15.    Tito Cabunagan                             (1814)    12/23/1968          #16600169

16.    Gonzalo Escapatoria                    (1589)    02/26/1967          #16600177

17.    Mohammad Manik Hossain        (1528)    04/20/1981          #16600185

18.    Ferdinand Gutierrez                    (1567)    08/02/1983          #16600193

19.    Jeffrey Negrillo                             (1516)    09/11/1975          #16600207

20.    Angie Parrado                              (1551)    12/13/1968          #16600215

21.    Elizalde Madrinan                        (------)     05/21/1962          #16600223

22.    Jeff Balbalosa                                (1540)    07/24/1979          #16600240

23.    Edwin Acuyan                               (1480)    03/22/1971          #16600258

24.    Ann Acebron                                (-------)    11/30/1981          #16600266

25.    George Anzawa                            (1376)    05/21/2000          #16600274

26.    Jose Celiz                                       (1687)    06/20/1973          #16600282

27.    Karen Lee                                      (1250)    05/07/1977          #16600290

28.    Rudel Roxas                                  (1530)     03/11/1979          #16600304

MADE IT IN THE LAST HOURS

Roberto Hernandez, right, completed his mission to have the Marcos family enjoyed their stay in Palau with the last hour visit of the Capitol in Melekeok and the Korean cemetery nearby. From left, Margarita "Nanette", Jamie Kirstie and Joselito Marcos, who won the 3rd Palau Invitational International Chess Championship with co-champion Menandro Manuel in December 14-19, 2011.

                                                                                                                                                         (Photo by: Merlyn Gonzales)

Source:   Chess mate by Roberto Hernandez

Tia   Belau  Newspaper

  Volume  21  

 Issue  08

   February 20, 2012

(1007) FORMAT-- 2011 PALAU NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (TBN-June 06, 2011)

        

1.    The event will be held from June 26-Sept. 25, 2011 at Beken’s Store and General Merchandise premises or at Palau Royal Resort Dormitory 1. Playing days are mostly Saturdays and Sundays depending on the available time of participants.

2.    It will be a single round robin event limited to 18 players. The names have been drawn as follows: 1. Eugenio Pastrana (1754) 2. Karen Lee 3. Menandro Manuel (1910) 4. Jeff Balbalosa 5. Roberto Hernandez (1846) 6. Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. (1941) 7. Paquito Suringa, Jr. (1602) 8. Jeffrey Negrillo 9. Dennis Gonzales 10. Elizalde Madrinan 11. Jose Celiz 12. Mohammad Manik Hossain 13. Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr.  14. Angie Parrado 15. Tito Cabunagan 16. Elpidio Manaligod (1540) 17. Rudel Roxas 18. Edwin Acuyan

3.    The number of participants can increase to 21 if Manuel Mahor, Jr.  will join and up to 24 if Bernard Garcia will also join.

4.    The time control is 90 minutes to make 40 moves and 30 minutes more to finish the game +30 seconds increment starting from move 1.

5.    Registration fee is $10.00. Half of it will be for cash prize of the top 5 finishers and the other half is for the Palau Chess Team Fund to 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.

6.    When playing at Palau Royal Resort, players are asked to get a visitor ID before entering the venue. The third venue is the Bethlehem Park near Palau National Gymnasium. Players are asked to set a date and time so that chess materials can be supplied.

7.    This is a FIDE rated event. The players without international ratings yet must finish at least 9 games and should have played at least 3 FIDE rated players to get an international ranking.

8.    The FIDE Laws of Chess will be displayed at the tournament sites for referral in case of a protest or dispute. The official arbiters of the events are Roberto Hernandez and Gene Pastrana, who are both participating. If they are playing while a protest is made, their time clock will be temporarily stopped and will only be resumed after the dispute is settled.

9.    Score sheets will be provided and players are required to write in Algebraic chess notations. Aside from small cash prizes, the top 5 finishers will receive trophies in the shape of King for the champion, Queen for the 1^st runner-up, Rook for the 2^nd runner-up, Bishop for the 3^rd runner-up and Knight for the 4^th runner-up courtesy of Roberto Hernandez.

10. The 2 woman contestants are eligible to be members of Palau Women’s Team to 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey. They have more than a year to save for buying their own airfare.

11. The basis of the composition of Palau Chess Team to the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey was the final standings of 2010-2011 Palau National Chess Championship. If Bernard Garcia is joining this year's PNCC and he finished in the top 5 AND he commits first than Cyril and Dennis Gonzales, then he can qualify as long as he is willing to buy his own airfare like the 4 who committed to the men's team (Manuel, Hernandez, Cabunagan and Mohammad Manik Hossain) and 2 to the women's team (Menandro's wife Elizabeth and Angie Parrado).

12. The Palau Chess Team Fund that were collected from registration fees and donations will be added to last year's fund to buy a laptop for Palau Chess Federation or to pay for the yearly due of PCF to FIDE (480 euros) for 2011 to be allowed to play in 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Countries with 2-year arrears in their payment are not allowed to participate in an Olympiad.

Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
              Tia Belau Newspaper
               Pages 9-10
              Volume 20
              Issue 23
              June 06, 2011