Grandmaster (GM) Ian Rogers, right, has been the top GM of Australia for a while. Due to illness, he retired before the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship. But he still shared his help and promotion of the game by analyzing the live games of the top 4 boards of the event, live on the internet. His retirement was somehow "offset" by the victory of David Smerdon to become the new and 4th GM of Australia. He is pictured here with Palau's lone representative Roberto Hernandez, Palau Royal Resort's musician and Tia Belau News chess columnist. (Photo by: Joselito Marcos)
CHESSMATE MARKS 7TH YEAR
SINCE THE first issue of Chess Mate in December 29, 2002, 17 major chess tournament have been held, two were invitational with foreign players from New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines participated and enabled the top chess players of Palau gained international rankings.
The first chess tournament ever in Palau was held in June 09, 2002 with Eddie Grefiel, a civil engineer of Daewoo Corp. bagging the first of his 3 chess titles.
Philippine Consul General Julius Torres, who is now the Ambassador of the Philippines in one of the Middle East country, claimed his only title in the 2002 Open Chess tournament participated in by 28 chess players (4 Palauans, 2 Americans and 22 Filipinos), while reigning Palau's top player Menandro 'Boy' Manuel won the first of his 6 titles in his first ever participation: the 2003 Open Chess tourney.
He won the 2005 Regular Chess tilt, the 2005-2006 Rapid Chess tournament, became the 2nd Palau National Master by winning the 2006 National Chess championship with co-champion Manny Nedic, Palau's first NM.
He also shared the title with blitz chess expert Tony Villa in year-ending 2006 Rapid Chess Festival. He is also the top Palau performer in the inaugural Palau Invitational Chess Championship won by Hilton Bennett of New Zealand.
He also shared the title of the second PICC (now known as the Ambassador Marino Cup) with Boris Michael Diez, number 86th rated player of the Philippines.
Manuel is currently one of the leaders in the 2009 Palau National Chess Championship with 6 wins and a loss, third best only to Cyril Montel, Jr. with a perfect 7-0 start after trouncing Romeo Caballes in 2oves of Giocco Piano last Sunday, December 27 in the resumption of NCC.
Bernard Garcia is in 2nd place with an identical record with Boy. Montel, Jr. will try to win his first ever and elusive chess title in Palau. He's been runner-ups in many occasions. A win over Bernard and Menandro will clinch him the championship.
Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr. suffered his second loss in two weeks by bowing to Caballes in a special game held on Tuesday at D. J. Cruz General Merchandise premises, the official tournament site, in the resumption of Palau NCC.
The Class A of 2003 Age Group Chess tourney was won by Edgardo Enarsao and Jose Omega won his first 2 Class B championships while Jayrome Soriano became the first Palau junior chmapion.
In the 2003 Senior and Junior Chess tournament, Roberto Hernandez got his first of 2 titles and Charles Aquino dominated the juniors for two consecutive tourneys before going back to Philippines.
The 2004 Non-Master Chess tourney was won by Jess Toldoya. He received $100.00 prize donated by Jose Omega.
The 2004 Open and 2004 Rapid Chess tilts gave Grefiel his 2nd and 3rd titles with Omega getting his 2nd Class B title.
The 2004 Open also produced the first ever Italian champion in a one-day blitz chess tournament held on August 01, with Andrea Buriani, an Italian tourist, emerging undefeated in speed chess.
Omega finally claimed his first Class A title by winning the 2005 Open. He was tied with Bong Alipoon and won a sudden-death match break the tie. When he won the rated division of the inaugural Ambassador Marino Cup, he also won a sudden-death match with Hernandez to claim the title and they split the $300.00 cash prize for 1st and 2nd place.
Vincent Vergara won the unrated division, Ken Pastrana won the junior plum and Hernandez' beautiful and younger looking wife Flor won the women's division. She is currently the recepient of 2008 Perfect Attendance award at Dragon Tei restaurant.
The 2007 Palau Royal Resort Rating Chess Tournament took place in the second month of Hernandez' tenure as musician at PRR. He topped the tournament followed by Dennis Lara and Jaime Guevarra. The two are now regular competitors of Palau Chess Federation's regular tournaments. The 2008 PRR Rapid Chess tourney was not finished because many players left the island.
Palau's first even participation in 2008 World Chess Olympiad, held every 2 years, almost came to reality. But because of world economic breakdown and a week late in submitting their application for Schengen visa, the last two players that got sponsorship for the trip to Dresden, Germany --Roberto Hernandez and Gene Pastrana, finally realized the main problem of getting to play outside Palau-- the isolated location.
Through the generosity of Oceania Zone President Gary Bekker, Hernandez became the first Palau player to participate in Oceania Zonal Chess Championship held in Australia (June 2009).
Hernandez also attended the Zonal Chess Meeting with FIDE General Secretary Ignatius Leong and other officials from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Palau and Solomon Islands.
One of the highlights of that meeting is that the smallest nation (Palau)has more regular chess news, because of CHESS MATE.
C H E E R S ! ! ! I'm wishing everyone a prosperous New Year!
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper Volume 19 Issue 01 January 04-10, 2010
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