(173) BATTLE OF THE BRAINS

BATTLE OF THE BRAINS
By NAZARIO RODRIGUEZ, JR.

Horizon News Staff

CHESS, although not flexing your muscles, is considered a sport. In fact, it's one of the world's most popular sports that it has its own Olympic Games.

All you need is patience and a lot of brains. It is the battle of the minds. It is a game of ancient origin that Palau can adopt as a way of putting itself into the world map. If plans will push through, Palau can compete in the Chess Olympiad in the near future.

The Chess Olympiad is held every two years. The next tournament is scheduled in October this year.There are a total of 161 member-countries now with the International Chess Federation or FIDE, the world's governing body of the sport.

Since last year, Palau is knocking at the doorstep of FIDE through the efforts of Knights and Rooks Chess Club, which is now chaired by Flavin Andres.

The club is a brainchild of Roberto Hernandez, who was elected as its first chairman since its formal establishment in September 15, 2002.

Just recently, the Palau Chess Federation was created because it is one of the requirements for membership in FIDE.

But before that, the PCF must first seek membership with the Palau National Olympic Committee.

"We're now readying some requirements for membership in the PNOC like our by-laws and financial report." said Hernandez, who is the Secretary/Treasurer.

Francis 'Sno' Temaungil is the PCF chairman, Morton Sawaichi (Vice Chairman) and Tutii Joe Chilton (PRO), all three are regular competitors on the tournament held every Sunday at Jean's Boutique and Store, just across Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

"We're really ready for FIDE membership.We are very thankful for the help of Mr. Gary Bekker. He promised to pay the membership fee of $487.00 and even wanted to have a tournament here in Palau." said Hernandez.

Bekker is the head of Oceania Zone and has encouraged the PCF to hold a big tournament this summer in Palau. Bekker even wanted to have some of the best players in Australia and New Zealand to compete for the tournament, which is aimed to give the current crop of players in Palau to get FIDE points.

The PCF is eyeing the Palau Royal Resort as the venue for this tournament, which will in a way give economic benefit for the country.

The tournament should also be a big boost for the PCF to introduce chess among the young kids in Palau, especially that the PCF is looking forward fo Palau's first participation in the 2008 World Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany.

Before that, there will also be the Oceania Zonal Championships in January 2007. "We want the kids to start now. In fact, we have coordinated in the schools and a lot of them have registered." said Hernandez.

Competing in the Chess Olympiad is already a great achievement and who knows that someday, there will be a Palauan Grandmaster for chess.

The upcoming 2006 International Championship here will be a perfect venue for the kids to start dreaming big.

Source: People, Places and Events

Palau Horizon Newspaper

Whole Page 9

January 24-26, 2006

Roberto Hernandez, left, got a helping hand from venue host Gene Pastrana in putting out a whole plywood of advertisement made by Hernandez for the current 2005-2006 Rapid Chess tournament.

Jose Omega, right, side by side with an onlooker.

Dennis Gonzales, left, vs. Joel Azana; Jerry Sermeno vs. Jess Gomez. Looking on is venue host Gene Pastrana and an unknown bystander.

(172) TITO SWEEPS OPPOSITION; CHESS BOOM AT PRR

INVITATIONAL THIS TIME
Participants of the Paquito Suringa Cup Invitational Chess Tournament at Palau Royal Resort pose before the start of the Cup on Saturday, October 24 at PRR Dorm 1. From left, Miguel Gancayco --current leader of Class B; Gracie Alenain-top seed in the women's division; her husband Rey; Randy Sioson (B); Roberto Hernandez--top seed of Class A; Joel Gabris (B); Jaime Guevarra (A); Ronel Gutierrez (B) and the innovator of the event Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr. --2nd seed of Class A.                                                                    (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)





             TITO SWEEPS OPPOSITION;
                   CHESS BOOM AT PRR

CLASS B division of the 2009 Palau National Chess Championship is dominated by Tito Cabunagan, who has yet to lose in 5 games.

He took the measure of late-comer Akram Hossain in the only afternoon game on Sunday, Oct. 25 at D. J. Cruz General Merchandise premises.

Earlier at 10:00 am, a classic match was set between Jaime Guevarra and Mohammad Manik Hossain to accomodate the former who has to work at 2 pm.

The much improved Manik outlasted Guevarra in 58 moves of Pirc Defence and obtained a well-balanced record of 3 wins and 3 losses. Jaime has a 1-1 win-loss slate.

In the finals, Bernard Garcia played 2 games and prevailed in both by nipping Romeo Caballes in 42 moves of Bishop Opening and Masum Billah in 48 moves of Two Knights Defence to keep abreast with 2nd seed Cyril Montel, Jr. at 3-0.

Top seed Menandro Manuel arrived at the tournament site again but Montel, Jr. refused to play against him.

They played a 4-player blitz chess contest instead with venue host Gene Pastrana and Tito. Manuel topped the event.

Late in the afternoon, Jun Mahor suffered a setback by bowing to Roberto Hernandez in 30 moves of Danish Gambit.

After a bishop sacrifice on the 7th move, Hernandez' 5 consecutive queen moves shattered Mahor's hapless kingside. Another bishop sacrifice on the 25th move forced Mahor to resign facing an inevitable mate.

In a special game on Wednesday night, October 28, Manuel dealt Mahor his 3rd loss in 29 moves of Irregular Opening (1. e3 e5 2. d4 e4) to remain undefeated and totes an identical card of 3-0.

The matches are supposed to be Mahor vs. Pastrana; Mahor vs. Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr. and Caballes vs. Suringa, Jr. at Palau Royal Resort Dormitory 1 but only one game was played.


CHESS IS BOOMING AT PALAU ROYAL RESORT!

In the ongoing Paquito Suringa Cup Invitational, there are 9 players in both Class A and Class B and a possible 9 players likewise in the women's division.

It started on Saturday, October 24.

THE FOLLOWING IS THE DRAWN NUMBER OF PLAYERS AND THEIR WIN-LOSS-DRAW RECORD:

CLASS A 1. Joel Flor (invited) (No games played yet) 2. Paquito Suringa, Jr. (5-4-1) 3. Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II (invited) (4-4-2) 4. Robert Tubice (0-4-0) 5. Nino Flores (2-2-0) 6. Roberto Hernandez (2-0-0) 7. Jaime Guevarra (2-3-0) 8. Jomar Alerta (1-1-0) 9. Arnel Ogalesco (invited) (3-1-1).

CLASS B 1. Ferdie Altea (2-3-0) 2. Randy Sioson (5-4-0) 3. Ronel Gutierrez (0-2-0) 4. George Gabris (2-8-0) 5. Jerome Ratunil (4-4-1) 6. Rey Alenain (6-3-0) 7. Miguel Gancayco (6-2-1) 8. Joel Gabris (3-5-0) 9. Elizalde Madrinan (4-1-2).

The Class C (women's division) will be chaired by Ms. Melanie Santos. The participants are May Olis, Maricar Baules, Gracie Alenain, Tonet Medillo, Shirin Dy, Marizon Sarabia, the new Indonesian worker and the invited Kristen Senajon.

Roberto Hernandez' 92-year old father passed away on Friday, October 23, 2009 in Philippines. He is not going to attend the funeral because he just had a vacation in June after representing Palau in 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship.

Instead, he will take a 5-day funeral leave on all Sundays of November to face his remaining 6 opponents without worrying about his work schedule.

Also to have time to play 14 more games in the Paquito Suringa Cup Invitational Rapid chess tournament at PRR Dorm 1.

The sponsors of 2009 Palau NCC are Bhoey Gopez of Island Logistics, Lucio Bandibas of WCTC, Ed Martinez of Print Zone (for 5 trophies), Bobby and Ogie Pineda and Jun dela Cruz of PALIBHASA ($60.00 for cash prizes).


Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
               Tia Belau Newspaper
               Pages 13 & 15
              Volume 18 Issue 44
               November 02-08, 2009

(171) CHESS OSCAR

BORN ON May 05, 1951, Anatoly Karpov is the most exciting prospect in world chess to emerge since Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal.

He has, like those two former world champion, take less than five years to make the transition from promising junior to world championship candidate.

In December 1973, Karpov was awarded the Chess Oscar, well-merited by a string of successes throughout the year, in the course of which he lost but one game.

Even the very few of the pundits were prepared to predict that Karpov would be the man to face Fischer in 1975, though most were agreed that he would meet Fischer in 1978 and that by then he, and he alone, might be able to wrest away the title and take it back to the USSR.

At age 4, he learnt chess from his father Evgeny Stapanovich and became a 3rd category player at 7. He became a 2nd and first category player at age 9.

A Candidate Master, Master, International Master, Grandmaster and World Championship Candidate at age 11, 15, 18, 19 and 22 respectively.

He was the youngest master in USSR history18 won the World Junior Championship that earned him the International Master title.

Other chess Oscar winner were former and retired world champion Gary Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand of India and Judit Polgar of Hungary, the only woman who is in the top 10 of the men's FIDE (World Chess Federation) ranking.


Source: Chess Oscar by Roberto Hernandez
            Island Times Newspaper
            Page 19
            March 29-April 02, 2007

(170) THE LAPTOP - POWERFUL CHESS LEARNING TOOL (TBN-Mar.16-22,2009)

ASIAN CONTINENTAL CHAMP
     GM Parimarjan Negi of India, FIDE rating 2640, won the gold in the open of Asian Continental Chess Championships despite a last round loss to GM Salem Saleh of the UAE.                                                                      (Photo from ACC post)

THE LAPTOP --

POWERFUL CHESS LEARNING TOOL

PARIMARJAN NEGI became India's youngest Grandmaster (GM) when he achieved the 3rd and final GM norm at the 2006 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 Viswanathan Anand's 14-year Indian record of 18 years.

But Negi also broke Norwegian Magnus Carlsen's record by 5 days to become the second youngest GM in  chess history.

Ukraine's Sergey Karjakin, who achieved this feat at the age of 12 years and 7 months, remain the world's youngest.

Currently, the youngest GM today is Wesley So of the Philippines, age 14 and the youngest ever player to play for Philippines squad in the 2004 World Chess Olympiad in Calvia, Spain.

Negi attained his International Master (IM) title in December 2005, and has been able to "upgrade" to GM within the short span of six months.

He hired British GM Nigel Short, himself a former child prodigy. Nigel stated that 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.

It should be pointed out that the goal-posts have moved somewhat in the intervening decades: one might justly say that they are now considerably wider and 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 powerful learning tool -- was bound to have an impact sooner or later".

Young and strong players today need not go to other country to face stronger opponents as hundreds of strong chess programs are available almost anywhere.

When they are finally ready to play to gain rating points and norms, they are very much well-equipped even in their young ages.

Here is Negi, the chess whiz from New Delhi against a female gold medalist at the 2006 Chess Olympiad in Torino, Italy (another teenager, of course).

White: K. Lahno (FIDE rating 2468)  Black: P. Negi (2445)

Sicilian Defence (Najdorf Variation)

Satka, Russia 2006

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. f3 0-0 9. Qd2 Be6 10. 0-0-0 Nbd7 11. g4 b5 12. g5 b4 13. Ne2 Ne8 14. f4 a5 15. f5 a4 16. Nbd4 exd4 17. Nxd4 b3 18. Kb1 bxc2+ 19. Nxc2 Bxa2+!? 20. Kxa2 Ne5 21. Nd4 Qb8 22. Qc2?! Bd8 23. Bc4?! Nc7 24. g6 Bf6 25. gxf7+ Kh8 26. h4 Na6 27. Bxa6 Rxa6 28. Bg5 Nc6!! 29. Qc4 nxd4 30. Rxd4 Bxd4 31. Qxd4 Qb3+ 32. Kb1 a3 33. f6 Qxb2+ 34. Qxb2 axb2 35. Kxb2 Rxf7 36. Rf1? Kg8 37. Kc3 h6 38. Be3 Rxf6 39. Rxf6 gxf6 40. Bxh6 Kf7 41. Bf4 Ke6 42. h5 d5 43. exd5+ Kxd5 44. Kd3 Ra3+ 45. Ke2 Ke4 46. Bd2 Rh3 47. h6 Rh2+ 48. Ke1 Kd3     White resigns.

Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper

Pages 13 & 15

Volume 18   Issue 10

March 16-22, 2009

(169) AN INTRODUCTION TO CHESS

CHESS HAS become one of the most challenging sports in the world and learning it may take only a few minutes but the tactics and strategies of the game will take some time.

Practice and natural talent will help you to improve your game rapidly. For those who don't know the game yet, here are the rules of the game:

CHESS BOARD AND MEN (Starting position of the game with letters abcdefgh at the bottom of each square and numbers 12345678 at the left side).

The board is always placed so that the players have a light-colored square on their lower right. Each player has 16 men: one King, one Queen, two Bishops, two Knights, two Rooks and 8 pawns.

The player with the white pieces always begins the game. The players alternate in moving a man from one square to another. The algebraic notation is best suited to describe these moves in a simple, concise manner and it is being used internationally. Only the first letter of he pieces is given -- K for King, Q for Queen, R for Rook, B for Bishop and N for Knight.

HOW THE MEN MOVE AND CAPTURE:

Each chessmen has his own individual way of moving, and with the exception of the pawn, the pieces capture the same way as they move. The Bishop moves diagonally, the Rook, horizontally and vertically and the Knight moves like the letter L. When a knight is in light color, he always move to the opposite color. And it is the only piece that can "jump over" the other men.

The queen combines the power of Rook and Bishop. She has the choice of moving diagonally, vertically and horizontally. She is the most powerful piece of all.

The pawn can go only straight forward. He can move only one square at a time, except on his first move, when he can advance either one or two squares. The pawn is the only man who does not capture the same way as he moves. His capture that is called "en passant" (ep) or in passing, needs specific example.

Let say there is a black pawn on a4 square and white moves his b pawn 2 squares. The black "a" pawn can capture the "b" pawn on b3 square.

It was adopted by the European chess players when they introduced the double step of the pawn some 486 years ago.

After reaching the opposite edge of the board, a Pawn would be unable to move. To avoid this, a rule provides that a player who advances a Pawn to the opposite side must exchange him for a Queen or Rook or Bishop or Knight. This is called promoting a Pawn, or queening him, as in most cases a player would choose a Queen. However, there are some cases in which promotion to a Queen would be inadvisable, or could even lose a game!

If a player still has a Queen, he can still promote his Pawn to a Queen and can have as many as 9 queens. There are only 2 serious games on record in which 5 queens were in action, one played in 1896 and the other in 1915.

The King, the most important of them all, can move in any direction like the Queen, but only one step at a time. When the King is checked and there is no other way to get him out of check, he is said to be checkmated. This ends the game, the King is never actually captured.

HOW GAMES ARE RECORDED:

It is advisable to use the Algebraic instead of English or descriptive notation. Pawn moves are letters abcdefgh. So if white starts 1. e4 it means that the pawn on e square moved to the 4th square. Instead of writing in 1. P-K4, e4 is easier and space saving. 0-0 is castling on kingside and 0-0-0 is castling on queenside.

The symbol x denotes captures. Check is abbreviated +, double check is ++.

So let's try if you can play this game on the chessboard by following these notations: (It was played in London, 1913) 1. f4 e5 2. fxe5 d6 3. exd6 Bxd6 4. g3 Qg5 5. Nf3? Qxg3! 6. hxg3 Bxg3#.

MORE SYMBOLS: ? is mistake; ! is good move; # is mate.

ANOTHER SHORT GAME: (Rudolp vs. Kelin, 1912) 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d4 Qh4 5. Kf1 Bb6 6. Nf3 Qd8 7. Bf4 Ne7 8. Ng5 0-0 9. Qh5 h6 10. Bxf7+ Kh8 11. Qxh6+! gxh6 12. Be5#

Next issue, more games, International Chess Federation (FIDE) rules, more basic tactics and strategies, chess puzzles and more.

Keep practicing and remember, in chess, THE SLOWER YOU MOVE, THE FASTER YOU'LL LEARN!

Smile! And say "CHESS".

Source: An Introduction to chess by Roberto Hernandez
Island Times
March 15-21, 2007

(168) CHESS MISCELLA"NEWS"

CHESS MISCELLA"NEWS"

PALAU ROYAL RESORT
     Its resident musician, Roberto Hernandez, plays music from 6-9 pm at Waves Restaurant and from 9-11 pm at Breeze Bar, on the upper right of this photo.
                                                                            (Photo by Jaime Guevarra)

*FIDE LAWS OF CHESS*

*1889 Game by Marco in Vienna, Asutria*

*INVITATION TO PLAY IN 2009 QUEENSTOWN CLASSIC

AND OCEANIA ZONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP*

THE PALAU Chess Federation received the World Chess Federation (FIDE) Laws of Chess through its Secretary/Treasurer Roberto Hernandez. The 18-page documents cover over-the-board play.

The English text is the authentic version of the Laws of Chess, which was adopted at the 77th FIDE Congress in Dresden, Germany that coincided with the World Chess Olympiad in November 2008.

It will be coming into force on July 01, 2009. In these Laws, the words "he", "him", and "his" include "she" and "her".

In the preface of the document, it started with: The Laws of Chess cannot cover all possible situations that may arise during a game, nor can they regulate all administrative questions. Where cases are not precisely regulated by an Article of the Laws, it should be possible to reach decision by studying analogous situations which are discussed in the Laws. The Laws assume that arbiters have the necessary competence, sound judgment and absolute objectivity. Too detailed a rule might deprived the arbiter of his freedom of judgment and thus prevent him from finding the solution to a problem dictated by fairness, logic and special factors. FIDE appeals to all chess players and federations to accept this view. A member federation is free to introduce more detailed rules provided they: (a) do not conflict in any way with the official FIDE Laws of Chess, and (b) are limited to the territory of the federation concerned, (c) are not valid for any FIDE match, championship or qualifying event, or for a FIDE title or rating tournament.

The BASIC RULES OF PLAY of the document will be published little by little next issues as some of them are already feaured in the "AN INTRODUCTION TO CHESS" last month.

In 1889, at Vienna, Austria, a strong chess player only known by the name of Marco, played an unknown player with the odd of a whole rook (on the a1 square) and the pawn on a2 moved to a3.

Here are the first 17 moves and the last 3 moves will be this week's puzzle: White to move and mates in 3. Marco had the white pieces:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Bb6 7. e5 Ne4 8. Bd5 f5 9. 0-0 Ne7 10. Ba2 d5 11. exd6 nxd6 12. Ne5 h5 13. Bg5 g6 14. Nc3 c6 15. Re1 Ne4 16. Rxe4 fxe4 17. Qb3 Rf8 ....

In his email to Roberto Hernandez and Gene Pastrana on December 02, 2008, Oceania Zone President Gary Bekker asked if either of the two chess players of Palau can participate in the Queenstown Classic in New Zealand in January 2009 and/or Oceania Zonal Championship in June 20-26, 2009.

Mr. Bekker is sponsoring the accomodation and an airfare subsidy of $500.00. Hernandez asked Pastrana if he can make it and he refused due to financial constraints.

At Palau Royal Resort, if a worker completed 2 years, he is entitled to at least 17 days of paid leave and free roundtrip ticket to his/her country of origin.

Hernandez will be 2 years at PRR on June 01, 2009 and he filed for a 17-day leave on June 17-July 03, 2009. A fitting date to participate in the Oceania Zonal.

He will ask for the help of Ambassador Marino for a discount on Philippine Airlines flight to Brisbane. Currently, the airfare for Palau-Manila-Melbourne (roundtrip) is $1,700.00.

Source: Chessmade by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper

Pages 13 and 15

Volume 18   Issue 12

March 22-29, 2009

(167) LATEST ON PALAU CHESS TEAM TO ISTANBUL (TBN-May 21, 2012)

FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
With Palau Chess Team to Istanbul, Turkey Chess Olympiad now complete with the addition of Elizabeth Manuel, the other members ---Roberto Hernandez, Menandro Manuel, Tito Cabunagan, Bernardo Garcia, Mohammad Manik Hossain and team captain Jamie Kenmure of Australia, can now concentrate on their game to get Palau its first FIDE title.
                                                                                            (Photo by Menandro Manuel)



    LATEST ON PALAU CHESS TEAM
                 TO ISTANBUL

JAMIE KENMURE, the Rating Officer of Palau Chess Federation and the Team Captain of Palau’s open chess team to the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey have registered the Palau Chess Team and he will be also the Head of Delegation and Roberto Hernandez will be FIDE Delegate. He also registered himself and Hernandez as journalists/press to have more mobility in all accessible places for players with press identification.

After registering the team, he is now on discussion with the members about the board order for the best interest of getting a maximum of 3 FIDE titles by applying a good strategy in arranging the board order.

The current board order is this: Board 1 is Tito Cabunagan, Board 2 is Mohammad Manik Hossain, Board 3 is Bernardo Garcia, Board 4 is Menandro Manuel and reserve is Elizabeth Manuel, Menandro’s wife.

Hernandez emailed Jamie about the weak line-up with Elizabeth probably can’t play a single game and all of the top 4 boards will have to play 11 straight games without relief. Hernandez suggests that Elizabeth be the Delegate and he will be Board 1, Tito at Board 2, Bernard at 3, Menandro at 4 and Manik as reserve.

BUT JAMIE GOT A BETTER IDEA – Elizabeth as Delegate and Hernandez as reserve!

With this idea, Tito will be Board 1, Manik at 2, Bernard at 3 and Menandro at 4. Suddenly, because of this idea, the proper strategy of board order puts a great chance of Palau acquiring its first FIDE title if Menandro, Bernard and Roberto scored 6 points in 9 games to get an automatic FIDE Master title. If nobody made it, 4.5 points in 9 games (or 50% performance) is good enough for a Candidate Master title, which is a title already in itself.

Hernandez will suggest to Jamie this round-by-round board order chart: ROUND 1 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Bernard 4. Roberto (Menandro-rest) ROUND 2 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Bernard 4. Menandro (Roberto – rest) ROUND 3 – 1. Manik 2. Bernard 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Tito – rest) ROUND 4—1. Tito 2. Bernard 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Manik – rest) ROUND 5 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Bernard 4. Menandro (Roberto – rest) ROUND 6 – 1. Manik 2. Bernard 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Tito – rest) ROUND 7 – 1. Tito 2. Bernard 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Manik – rest) ROUND 8 – 1. Manik 2. Bernard 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Tito– rest) ROUND 9 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Bernard 4. Robert (Menandro –rest) ROUND 10 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Bernard – rest) ROUND 11 – 1. Tito 2. Manik 3. Menandro 4. Roberto (Bernard – rest).

This board order enabled Menandro, Roberto, Bernard and Manik to have played 9 games each while Tito have 8 games played for a total of 44 games. Tito can have 9 games played with Manik’s games played been reduced to 8. This chart can also be changed depending on Palau team opponents as a strategy.

Menandro agreed with Elizabeth being the Delegate. He also wants to make sure that higher rated players being assigned at lower board is allowed. It is allowed long time ago. Even in team chess tournaments in Philippines, highest rated players are assigned at lower boards to secure wins.

After some thoughts, Hernandez realized more weaknesses in the above line-up and decided to keep the original line-up of Hernandez at Board 1, Tito at 2, Bernard at 3, Menandro at 4 and Manik as reserve. Manik’s games might be limited especially among the weaker teams to secure some points for Menandro.

Likewise, being board 1 player might not happen again in the future so Hernandez will take this opportunity to the max. Someday he might be proud to himself that he became the 144^th best player in an Olympiad, which thousands of chess players might not even have a chance to achieve.


Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
              Tia Belau Newspaper
              Pages 10 - 11
              Volume 21 Issue 31
              May 21, 2012