CHESS BUDDY IN BRISBANE
Ric Ambatali, 3rd from left, became chess friend of Roberto Hernandez, left, and Lito Marcos, right, in the last day of their 11-day stay in Australia. Ric, who is a part-time chess coach of Queensland School of Chess, also coached 10-year old Daniel Lapitan (being hugged by Lito) and the best friend of Daniel's father Raymond, 2nd from left. (Photo by: Jennifer Tan)
FILIPINO HOSPITALITY IN AUSTRALIA
IN HIS last day of representing Palau in the Oceania Zonal Chess Championship and Gold Coast Open in June 28, 2009, Roberto Hernandez met Ric Ambatali and right away, he felt the warm Filipino hospitality in the land down under.
Together with Raymond Lapitan and his child chess prodigy son Daniel, Joselito Marcos and Hernandez, he used his car in dropping Lito and Roberto to YHA apartment which is just a 5-minute walk to the Gold Coast domestic airport.
Within just few hours of meeting those people, it seems like Hernandez found a treasure just meeting them. Regular emails have kept them busy in communicating, with Hernandez always sending them attachments of his latest issues of Tia Belau's Chessmate column.
In his first email, Ric offered to pick Roberto or Lito up at Brisbane airport whenever they visit Australia again and offer his house to accomodate the two first-time visitors to Australia.
Lito is working in Papua New Guinea for 14 years while Roberto works as musician in Palau for 17 years.
Ric and Daniel will compete in the Surfer's Paradise Open chess tournament in Sept. 27-28, 2009. Granmaster (GM) Alexie Shirov of Spain, one of the top 10 GM in the world, will spearhead the event.
He will also play a simutaneous exhibition matches against many players including Daniel, who is hoping to get at least a draw like what he did against GM Dejan Antic (from Serbia) in December 2007 at Gold Coast.
Ric is also planning to come to Palau with Daniel to compete in the next Palau Invitational Chess Championship. He also prepared a bed in his computer room to accomodate Roberto or Lito anytime.
He migrated in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in June 02, 1993 as Independent Migrant and was granted PERMANENT RESIDENCY right away. On January 27, 1996, he got his Australian citizenship in just a matter of more than 2 years.
He was very touched by an attachment email send to him by Roberto about the 'crying' Japanese tourist, who tipped Hernandez $100.00 in March 27, 2008 and another $100.00 two days later.
He added that Roberto remained humble and wish to visit Palau someday and maybe participate in the next national chess championship to start soon in August, 2009 at the new location of Jean's Boutique and Store, about 10 meters from its old site.
In the continuation of tussle in Turin Chess Olympiad: Arianne Caoili attended the Bermuda party with German GM Arkadij Naiditsch. According to ChessBase, here's what happened next: "Arianne at some stage started to dance with Levon Aronian, 23, the world's number 3 player and top board of the Armenian team.
The dance, she said, was neither close or sexy and Aronian is an old friend whom she has known since she was eight or ten. "There is no romantic link between us," she said.
The dance with Aronian, however, incurred the wrath of--well not GM Naiditsch, but Daniel Gormally, a 30-year-old GM who plays on board four for England.
Danny knew Arianne only casually ("there's no romantic link," she said once again). But the sight of the super GM dancing (the salsa) with his beautiful acquaintance resulted in a surge of jealousy in the Brit. He lunged at Aronian and sent the surprised GM sprawling on the dance floor...
Immediately a .. countryman of Aronian... rushed forward with murder in his eyes... Fortuitously, at this point (America's vetern champion Yasser Seirawan) intervened energetically in order to prevent the situation from escalating any further.
He pinned Gormally to the wall with one hand, while fending off Aronian's countryman with another. There was an emergency exit close by, and Yasser quickly popped Gormally out into the fresh air, while making sure that the vengeance-seeking Armenian remained in the party room.
During the scuffle, the wife of Dutch GM Jan Timman took a light glazing blow to the chin-- nothing serious, but it left her in tears and in need of comforting. This act of kindness, too, was absolved by Yasser...
The following day Gormally was confronted by a group of Armenians, who roughed him up a little. Danny decided enough was enough and returned to England.
Back in Britain, Gormally told a reporter that he "fell in love" with Arianne. "I went up to Aronian and I punched him, which is very embarassing to me. Basically, I hit him because I'm jealous. Obviously, I've got problems with alcohol and anger, which I need to deal with. I was jealous because he was dancing with her --maybe I was also a bit jealous because he's the world's no. 3 and I'm the world's no. 200 and something." He said he had spoken to Arianne and apologized for his behavior.
He said 'he wanted to set the record straight in Australia, where he feared Ms. Caoili was being depicted as a temptress of the checkered board who toyed with the hearts of men. "She's not my girlfriend. She told me that she had a boyfriend in Australia. I've never had any feelings from her that there was likely to be a relationship between us besides friendship. But it doesn't matter --- sometimes you just fall in love with people, and that's what happened."
According to Gormally, he met Arianne 18 months ago, adding that she helped him beat his long-standing fear of flying. But now he is thinking of giving up the chess-related travel -- even the game itself. "The chess world now... I've just lost interest in it. There's a lot of egos, a lot of competitiveness. It just doesn't interest me. I've always been a very lazy person, and the problem with chess is that you have to be completely obsessive about it. You have to have the passion, but gradually I think I've lost it."
Arianne's mother Annette, who lives in Australia's Sunshine Coast, said the incident was "a big drama" for her daughter. "This is just a storm in a tea cup," Annette told the Herald Sun. "It's just a typical thing isn't it? Sex, beauty, scandal, even the so-calleld nerds, as the world sees them -- it sells. I mean, she's not Madonna, for heaven's sake."
Arianne's mother said she was concerned for the image of chess. "Those who are in the high profile level are very well-behaved gentlemen. We don't want scandals like this destroying the sport." According to Britain's The Guardian, however, "Gormally-gate", as chess afficionados are now calling it, is probably the best thing to have happened to this much mocked pastime in a generation. That hopelessly leftie newspaper is probably right.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez Tia Belau Newspaper August 03-09, 2009
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