Six players are still busy at 7:00 pm when it was already dark at the ground of Parish Center for Migrants in the 8th round of the tourney. Jimmy Valenzuela, left, vs. Joel Azana; Jimboy de Jesus, 2nd from left, vs. Bong Alipoon and Menandro Manuel vs. Eddie Grefiel. (Photo by: Roberto Hernandez)
FOUR players fought it out for the lead in lthe 8th round of the 2004 Rapid Chess tournament held Sunday, Nov. 14 at Parish Center for Migrants and sponsored by TFCP, M. B. Dalton and K. Cuenco of Kabayan Restaurant.
Idle Jose Omega kept the lead win an 8-1-0 win-loss-draw record but Cyril Montel, Jr. (6-2-2) and defending champion Eddie Grefiel (6-1-0) made moves to challenge the leader.
Montel, Jr. scored 2.5 points in 5 games by defeating newcomer Gene Pastrana (3-7-0) and former champ Roberto Hernandez in 55 moves of a Bird's Opening.
He lost to another former champ Menandro Manuel (7-4-0) and Bong Alipoon (3-6-0). He drew his first game of the day with Dennis Gonzales (2-4-1) where he leads by 4 points but couldn't get a whole point because he had a king, a bishop and a pawn against Gonzales' lone king.
It clearly became a draw when Montel, Jr. didn't anticipate that his bishop was in the other color where his pawn will be promoted to a queen.
Grefiel is on a 4-win streak after losing to Montel, Jr. on the opening day by trouncing Manuel and Hernandez in 31 moves of Modern Defence.
Hernandez missed a stronger 23rd move that could have cramped Grefiel's position. Manuel defeated Montel, Jr. and both now share second place.
In the first game of the day, lone Palauan bet Morton Sawaichi (3-8-0) toppled Gonzales and scored a win after a string of losses.
In the shortest game of the tournament, Gonzales mated Pastrana in just 9 moves when the latter missed a pawn move that would have prolonged the game.
Pastrana upset Alipoon to end a 5-game losing streak. He lost again to Joel Azana (4-6-0), a candidate for Most Improved Player (MIP) award that will be given courtesy of the chairman who is donating a trophy.
In the last game of the day, Azana lost to Ivan II Chess Computer when he failed to force a draw by stalemate.
The other candidates for MIP are Sawaichi, Gonzales and idle Lin de Guzman (3-2-0).
In the 18 years and below category, only 1 player showed up (Chris Domingo) and he played a best-of-three seried against Ivan II Chess Computer.
He opted to use the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence and lost. In the second game, he tried the Four Knights Defence with the black pieces and also lost when he couldn't find the right continuation in the sequence of move 18.
He still leads the division with a 2-2-0 slate.
Solution to last week's puzzle: The first puzzle's solution is 1. ... Qh4+ g3 2. Qxg3+!! 3. hxg3 Bxg3 mate.
The second puzzle solution is 1. ... Qf2+!! 2. Kxf2 Rd1 discovered check 3. Be3 Bxe3 mate.
Source:
Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
November 19-26, 2004
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