Arianne Caoili, the Oceania Zonal Champion, poses with lone Palau representative Roberto Hernandez during the awarding ceremony of the event. With the win, she qualifed to the World Cup to be held in November in Russia. She finished the event without a loss and drew her 5th round match against top seed Irina Berezina. (Photo by: Joselito Marcos)
FIL-OZ LADY IS A CHAMP
In The Bulletin featured story, Woman International Master (WIM) Arianne Caoili was featured as: "Arianne Caoili is no stranger to controversy and it has plagued her again -- this time in chess. The 22-year old Gold Coaster, who attends university in Canberra and Germany is back on the Gold Coast for the Oceania Chess Championship at Outrigger Twin Towns Resort.
Caoili is now famous for her appearance on Channel 7's Dancing With The Stars in 2006 in which she was accused by a judge of having a professional dance training.
She was also labeled a temptress after reports she was at the center of a love triangle that ended in dance floor punch-up in Italy. Caoili said she had put those incidents behind her. "I don't like to talk about it." She said. "With every adventure there's good and bad. I choose to ignore the bad. I learned a lot of things, but I'm young and there are lots more adventures ahead."
What she didn't mind talking about was the controversy surrounding her chess game against Australia's number one player Irina Berezina of Sydney. The three-hour game was a draw and Caoili was not impressed. "I'm not very happy," she said. "I was much better. Irina played passively. She offered me the draw and I thought I'd take it. I wish I didn't take it."
Berezina was also unhappy with the result. "What can you do? Everyone wants to win," she said. "It's tough playing such long games and playing them every day."
Caoili eventually won the Oceania Championship by half a point over Berezina and qualified for the World Cup to be held in November in Russia.
Turin, Italy will go down in chess history not as the host of the Chess Olympiad in 2006 where Armenia won the gold, but as the site of what is now the chess world's most notorious party brawl.
The incident happened during the Olympiad's traditional "Bermuda party" held on the eve of a free day. "So the participants have a good 36 hours to recover from its mind-numbing after-effects.
At the center of this story is Arianne Caoili, a WIM playing on board three of the Australian team. She is rated 2169 on the FIDE list. Her dad's Filipino and her mom's Australian.
A child prodigy, she played for the Philippines in her early teens but returned to Australia because, as she told a Slovenian newspaper in 2001, "I need a good coach. My mommy and I are tired of begging for money. The only solution is changing the national colors."
In 2002, she quit chess so she could finish high school. She say she now intends to play more tournaments.
Arianne, not surprisingly, is one of the most photographed chess players on the planet today. She is called "the Anna Kournikova of chess." But, she says, she would rather be known as the game's "Anna Sharapova."
"Yes, I play chess!" she proclaim on her Web site. "It's an obsession of many forms and an amazing culture in itself. Not to mention fighting for the mere pleasure of fighting. In my opinion, the most important thing when playing chess is an expression of fearlessness."
Arianne, by the way, also sings and hopes to "complete a solo album" one of these days.
In the 6th round of Bled, Slovenia Chess Olympiad in November 01, 2002, Manila Bulletin reported: "In women's play, WIM Arianne Caoili and Beverly Mendoza powered the Filipinas to a 2.5-.05 shellacking of Wales. Sheerie Joy Lomibao drew her match.
The big wins pushed the Filipinas to a share of 30th spot as they press their bid to improve on their 37th place finish two years ago in Istanbul, Turkey.
On Friday, the men's team battles India while the women's squad takes on Israel. The 15-year old Caoili, hurt by back-to-back losses, injected life in her bid for a woman GM title by subduing Debbie EvansQek in 52 moves with the black pieces. Both players were rattling off their moves in rapid fashion when EvansQek blundered away a rook on the 50th move that led to her defeat.
Another child prodigy, Daniel Lapitan, will participate in the FIDE rated RuthCoxhill Memorial. Daniel's father, Raymond, was very happy Daniel was invited in the tournament where the best of the Gold Coast junior players are participating. They are FIDE Master (FM) Gene Nakauchi (2102 FIDE rating), Phachara Wongwichit (2032), Jonas Muller (1925), Sam Grigg (1933), Amin Fazel (1889), Alexander Stahnke (1799), Daniel Ford (1792), Daniel Lapitan (1287), Martin Jack (1260), Caleb Eriksson(1257).
Note: 7 of the 10 players played in the Oceania Zonal, all finishing with a performance higher than their rating... in the case of Daniel Lapitan nearly 500 points, and Caleb Eriksson nearly 300 points higher. And for the first time, this event consists entirely of Gold Coast residents.
It's a 10 players Invitational Round Robin, 9 Wednesdays commencing 22nd July Finishing 16th September. All games start at 6:15 prompt with time control of 90+30 Fischer. No entry fee and the prizes are: 1st $600.00, 2nd $400.00, 3rd $200.00, 4th $100.00.
Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez Tia Belau Newspaper July 27- August 02, 2009
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