12-year-old Chris Domingo missed the last 2 weeks of the 2004 Non-Master Chess tournament due to his participation in the Spelling Bee contest. His 9-year-old brother Georby, missed 2 weeks of chess competition, too. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
IN A BATTLE between 2 former champions, Menandro 'Boy' Manuel seized back the lead in the 7th round of the 2004 Non-Master Chess tournament held on Sunday, Feb. 22 at Paul Brothers Tri-M General Merchandise and Food Retail in Malakal.
Manuel defeated 2nd seed Roberto Hernandez in 46 moves of Sicilian Defence (Najdorf Variation) in their 8th round match.
Manuel made a dubious bishop sacrifice on the 11th move and lost a minor piece. Hernandez, a pianist/DJ at Image Restaurant, tried to simplify the game by exchanging as much as possible but made an error on the 24th move and Manuel recovered and was down only by a pawn.
Hernandez gave a rook for a bishop and a pawn but Manuel managed to position his two rooks with a mate threat and after losing the second rook, Hernandez resigned on the 46th move.
Manuel now has a 6-1-1 win-loss-draw record after beating Mario Ramos earlier in the afternoon. Hernandez dropped to 3-4-1 after scoring a victory earlier over co-host Lin de Guzman in 40 moves of another Sicilian Defence.
The adjourned game between Jose Omega (4-4-0) and Jess Toldoya (3-1-1) was finally played with Omega winning. Toldoya's sealed move (Nb3) was opened and after a few moves, he resigned after Omega's 2 passed pawn became unstoppable.
Omega scored another win against Mariano Agustin, Jr. (3-3-0) before going to work. He came back an hour later and lost a 30-minute game against Jimmy Valenzuela (3-6-0).
Mario Ramos, (3-3-0) was given another chance to play by his employer Polycarp Basilius last Sunday, scored another upset over Agustin, Jr.
It was a sweet victory for Ramos who lost to Agustin, Jr. in July 20, 2003 in the 4th round of the Age Group Chess tournament where their game was rained out.
He was ahead in the exchange and as they are going inside the office of the TFCP to resume their game, Agustin, Jr. scrambled their chessboard and they played another game. He bowed to Agustin in that game and he felt like he was cheated.
Before their rained-out game, tournament's arbiter Hernandez offered Ramos a score sheet for him to write their moves. He refused and because he could not recall the original position before Agustin scrambled it, they had to play a new game.
Mike Miguel, Jr. (5-3-0), who works at PMA in Airai, dislodged Danny Dandoy (4-3-0) at 3rd place after scoring a win over Omega. Dandoy dropped to 4th after losing to Toldoya, who only played 5 games so far.
Amante Caballero (0-1-1) has a day off only on every second Thursday. He played one game against Ivan II Chess Computer on February 19 and lost in 38 moves of English Opening II (1. c4 e5).
With his different day off, he has to play those available players on the telephone or through email.
In the kid's division, defending champion Charles Aquino (7-1-1) dealt Karen Hernandez her first loss of the tournament (2-0) in their best of 3 series. Karen stayed at 2nd place despite the loss with a 3-1-1 record.
Michael Velarde lost to Ivan II Chess Computer (2-0). Ivan is now at 3rd and Velarde at 4th.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
February 27- March 05, 2004
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