Dyan Castillejo and Mark Nelson (seated), hosts of weekly Philippine TV Show Sports Unlimited, pose with Tia Belau chess columnist Roberto Hernandez and his wife Flor during a dinner at the Image Restaurant in Meyuns after three days of shooting in Palau.
(Contributed photo by Roberto Hernandez)
FIRST TIMER Dennis Gonzales got his baptism of fire in his first ever tournament games. He lost his first 4 games against Ivan II Chess Computer (twice), against Mariano Agustin, Jr. and vs. Jerry Sermeno.
Gonzales celebrated his birthday with 9 friends last Wednesday at Image Restaurant singing karaoke while having dinner and Roberto Hernandez is operating the karaoke while practicing with Ivan II.
Before they left, Gonzales approached Hernandez and said he is interested in joining the chess tournament that is one month away from concluding.
He was offered to participate in Class B and have to play at least 3 games every week. He said the first 2 games with Ivan II drained him to the fullest as he had the initiative in the first game but lost it eventually.
He was not able to play three other Class B players waiting in line -- Morton Sawaichi, top seed Jose Omega and Den Canaria.
In the other Class B game, Agustin, Jr. defeated Sermeno to share the lead with Ivan II who is still undefeated w/6 straight wins.
Agustin, Jr. now has a 6-3 win-loss record while Sermeno is 4-4.
In Class A division, Cyril Montel, Jr. suffered his 5th straight defeat from Hernandez in 39 moves of a Modern Defence. It seems Hernandez found a winning defence for Black as he won all of his games with the black pieces by using the Modern Defence against Jimmy Valenzuela and Ivan II.
Montel, Jr. later scored half point by drawing against defending champion Jess Toldoya who was a pawn ahead in queen and pawns endgame.
After Montel, Jr. recovered the pawn, Toldoya offered a draw as he was ready for a perpetual check.
In the last game of the day of the 2004 Open Chess tourney sponsored by Nestor Canaria held this Sunday, September 19, Valenzuela scored his first ever win over Ivan II Chess Computer in their Giocco Piano game.
He has now a 1-2-1 win-loss-draw record against the formidable machine and finished the tourney with a 4-2-2 slate. He is now a top candidate for at least 2nd runner-up depending on the results of Hernandez vs. Eddie Grefiel match on the 7th round and against Toldoya in the final round.
Toldoya (2-1-2) and Hernandez (4-2-0) are the two players who can catch up with Grefiel (5-0-1).
With the addition of another player in the Class B division, Hernandez has decided to add another trophy for Class B courtesy of Nestor Canaria, who is also donating $60.00 as cash prize for Class A ($30.00 for the champion, $20.00 for the first runner-up and $10.00 fir tge 2nd runner-up).
The additional $15.00 from Class A players for cash prize was cancelled and will be discussed before the next tournament.
Source:
Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
September 24 - October 01, 2004
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