WHERE ARE THE TROPHIES?
It's been more than a month since the awarding of the 2004 Open sponsored by Nestor Canaria (left) but still no trophies were awarded to the Class A winners (from right) -- Roberto Hernandez (1st runner-up), Eddie Grefiel (champion) and Jimmy Valenzuela (2nd runner-up). Another 3 trophies were to be given to Class B champion Jose Omega, 1st runner-up Mariano Agustin, Jr. and Den Canaria (host's son). Only certificates and cash prizes for Class A were given.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
AFTER missing 4 tournaments in a row, Jimboy de Jesus made his presence felt in the 9th and 10th round of the 2004 Rapid Chess tournament held on Sunday, November 21 at Parish Center for Migrants and sponsored by TFCP, M. B. Dalton and Kabayan Restaurant.
De Jesus, 2nd runner-up in the 2002 Open, survived a relentless attack by 2-time champion Eddie Grefiel (8-2-0), who gave up two minor pieces but couldn't sustain the attack and when de Jesus forced the simplification, Grefiel suffered his 2nd loss of the tilt. The two now has a career win-loss-draw record of 1-1-1.
De Jesus climbed from 13th spot to 7th after defeating lone Palauan bet Morton Sawaichi (3-9-0) and halving the point with Lin de Guzman (5-4-1) in which he had only a king against de Guzman's king and queen.
He was stalemated and escaped with half point for a 4-2-1 card. He suffered his 2nd loss to new leader Cyril Montel, Jr., who also defeated de Guzman for an 8-2-2 slate to overtake idle Jose Omega (8-1-0), who was absent for 2 consecutive weeks due to job requirement.
He is now in 2nd spot followed by Grefiel and absent Menandro Manuel (7-4-0). De Guzman is now leading the 4-man candidate for Most Improved Player (MIP) as he upset Bong Alipoon (4-6-0) and jumped from 6th to 8th place.
Two newcomers were added to the roster of participants, taking the places of Danny Dandoy and Mario Ramos, who have not showed up to play.
Wilson Milambiling and Pastor Fontanilla, both working at Palau Pacific Resort, played against the available players with Milambiling winning over Dennis Gonzales and Mariano Agustin, Jr. but lost to Alipoon when he blundered away his queen for a knight.
Fontanilla, however, lost both of his games to de Guzman and Agustin, Jr.
Third seed Roberto Hernandez (6-3-0) trounced Jimmy Valenzuela in 23 moves of Modern Defence.
Hernandez sacrificed a bishop for 2 pawns to expose Valenzuela's king to the attack of Hernandez' queen, knight and bishop. When Valenzuela failed to anticipate a mate in two, he resigned instead of getting mated.
After the completion of regular games, Valenzuela and Grefiel practiced semi-blitz games. Alipoon and Hernandez followed suit until 11:00 pm.
Alipoon had 11 wins, 6 losses and 3 draws. He displayed remarkable skills in bltiz although in tournament play he seems to struggle and is out of contention now.
Solution to last week's puzzle: 1. ... Nd3++ (double check) 2. Kd1 Qe1+! Nxe1 Nf2 mate. This is called the smothered mate that usually occurs on both ends of the board. It is embarassing to lose in this kind of mate so it is better to resign than to continue as what happened to Judit Polgar in her controversial match against Gary Kasparov in 1994 in Linares, Spain.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
November 26- December 03, 2004
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