(120) ANGIE PARRADO RETURNS

SECOND TIME AROUND

Angie Parrado, left, shake hands with Jeffrey Negrillo before the start of their official game of 2011 PNCC at Beken's Store and General Merchandise premises. Watching their game were Angie's three daughters.

(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

RUSTY AFTER 5 YEARS

Angie Parrado, left, shakes hands with Jeffrey Negrillo before the start of their official game of 2010-2011 PNCC on Saturday, Jan. 22 at Palau Royal Resort Dormitory 1. Angie lost this game and the next one to Roberto Hernandez due to rusty play. She practices with PRR staff after her games to regain her top form.

(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

ANGIE PARRADO RETURNS

THE FIRST ever chess tournament in Palau was held in June 09, 2002 with 20 players participated in and 4 of them are women -- Karen Hernandez, Michelle Ramos, Remy Mingo and Angie Parrado, who finished 10th with 4 wins, 3 losses and a draw.

In the first round, she defeated Remy Mingo, the strongest women chess player of Palau. In the 2nd round, Angie clobbered Philippine Consul General Julius Torres but lost to Eugene Koh in the 3rd round.

She bounced back from defeat and dealt Lemuel Bacor, who died of colon cancer last year, his 2nd loss. She won again over Ben Ramos, lost to eventual champion Eddie Grefiel, his co-employee Geoffrey Moro and drew with Noel Filomeno.

Angie didn't finish the final round of this 9-round Swiss system event due to pregnancy.

Angie is now back to competitive chess and her first game against Jeffrey Negrillo in the resumption of 2010-2011 Palau National Chess Championship on Saturday, Jan. 22 at Palau Royal Resort Dormitory 1 shows how rusty she is as she missed a winning combination even though down by a piece.

She always forgot to press the chess clock as the available chess clock in the 2002 event is only 2 units. She lost the game in 49 moves of Center Counter.

In her game against Roberto Hernandez, Jeffrey volunteered to write the moves for her. Despite the offer of convenience, she still moves very fast and lost her queen on the 11th move and was mated on the 36th move of Sicilian Defence.

Thus, Angie now has 3 losses as Mohammad Manik Hossain likes to keep his carry-over win over Masum Billah, the player that Angie had replaced.

In the latest results of the 2010-2011 PNCC, Tito Cabunagan dealt Jerry Sermeno his first loss with a masterful handling of Queen's Gambit Accepted and prevailed in 46 moves. It is also the first ever encounter of the two and both of them don't know each style of play.

Dennis Gonzales defeated Roberto Hernandez in 2006 Palau National Chess Championship. This time, Hernandez prevailed with a careful handling of Sicilian Defence and pinned Dennis' knight with no choice of counterplay. Giving up the pinned knight resulted in his downfall. With one move before being mated, he resigned on the 32nd move.

He bounced back from that loss and dealt Tito his 4th loss with a dose of Roberto's own medicine, with his own pin on Tito's knight. He pinned Tito's king with a nice bishop sacrifice that Tito refused. More problems occured when Dennis added a rook to the bewildering attack.

The game is over in just 27 moves and they practice blitz chess while Cyril and Jerry are playing their official game, which ended in a marathon 65-move victory to Cyril in their Sicilian Defence (Alapin Variation) encounter.

Jerry refused the exchange of rooks which is favorable for him to draw or win as they have endgame of bishop of opposite color. Analysis by Dennis and others show that even though Cyril is ahead by a pawn, the draw is imminent.

After that last game, Dennis, Jerry, Menandro and Roberto have a conversation about getting some financial support for the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey through non-profit organization, which Palau Chess Federation has been since April 11, 2006.

Menandro is suggesting to have this current National Chess Championship as the basis for the composition of Palau Chess Team. If one or two players that finished in the top 5 can't get sponsors for his airfare, the next one is eligible to replace him.

Papua New Guinea's top chess player Joselito Marcos is on his way to represent PNG in the 2011 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Rotorua, New Zealand from Jan. 25-31, 2011.

He's donating $100.00 for cash prize of the ongoing Palau NCC. He has given the money to his daughter in Philippines including the complete set of chess bulletins of the 35th World Chess Olympiad held in Bled, Slovenia and the Chessmates magazine that he borrowed from Roberto in Russia.

Joselito will be Palau's representative to Oceania Chess Confederation meeting through a proxy letter made by Hernandez for him to be forwarded also to Paul Spiller, New Zealand Chess Federation President and to Brian Jones, President of Oceania Zonal and OCC.

Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez

Tia Belau Newspaper Volume 20 Issue 4 January 24, 2011