(135) TITO IS 2011 PNCC CHAMP(?)

TEAMMATES TO ISTANBUL WORLD CHESS OLYMPIAD
Tito Cabunagan, right, was a teammate of Roberto Hernandez in 2010 World Chess Olympiad in Russia. George Anzawa, left, is a future teammate to the 2012 Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey together with Adele Anzawa, middle, George's mom, who is one of the members of Palau Women's Team.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)



          TITO IS 2011 PNCC CHAMP (?)
       CO-CHAMPIONS --CYRIL TOMAS MONTEL, JR.
                         ROBERTO HERNANDEZ


BEING IDLE for 3 weeks, erstwhile top chess player of Palau Menandro 'Boy' Manuel was overtaken by Tito Cabunagan in the very close race for the title of 2011 Palau National Chess Championship.

Tito clobbered Jeffrey Negrillo to lift up his total points to 12.5 while Boy stayed at
10 points.

Dennis Gonzales played 2 games on Sunday, Sept. 18, losing to top seed Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. but bounced back from defeat and dealt Mohammad Manik Hossain his 7th loss. Their game is a seesaw battle with mistakes from both sides. A better handling of endgame gave Dennis his 2nd victory against 3 losses. His match with Roberto Hernandez is set on the last day of the tourney at 4:00 pm.

Manik suffered his 8th losses to Jose Celiz with Manik's time still intact at 20 minutes. They used the time control of 20 minutes for each player to finish the game with 30 seconds increment.

Another touch move controversy happened again that involves Gene Pastrana in his game against Angie Parrado this time. In the middle of their game, Gene moved his knight to g3. Upon realizing it's a blunder, he asked for Angie's permission if he can move the knight to another square, which is not allowed if Gene had let go his hand off the knight.

Angie couldn't confirm that Gene really took his hand off the knight, so the win was awarded to Gene by Hernandez, who is also acting as arbiter of the event.

When asked if he had time to play against Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr., Edwin Acuyan said he don't have time and gave away the win to Pax.

After lunch on Wed. Sept. 21, Hernandez and Rudel Roxas played their official game at Palau Royal Resort Dormitory 1. Hernandez maintained his quality advantage ( a rook for a knight) till the endgame and prevailed after 54 moves of English Opening.

They used the time control of 30 minutes for each player to finish the game because Hernandez has to work at 2:00 pm.

Another official game was played between Hernandez and Ferdinand 'Bong' Gutierrez a 11:15 am on Sept. 22. A blunder by Hernandez on the 21st move allowed Bong to win a knight. He should have won another knight and the game had he played the simple 26. g4 instead of 24. d4, where he is trying to gobble Hernandez pawn on d3.

A mistake on the 28th move by Bong allowed Hernandez to equalize by winning back the knight. After the exchange of queens, Hernandez weaved a mating net with 2 pawns, a knight and a rook.

Bong was mated by a pawn on the 40th move of their Pirc Defence clash. The 2 wins moved Hernandez closer by half points to Tito.

Hernandez was able to have a talk with Elpidio Manaligod on Friday at 5:30 pm. He is available from 8:00 pm if the games will be played at Lehn's Hotel where he works and stay.

IMMEDIATELY, Hernandez contacted Adele Anzawa and a match was set between Elpidio and George at 8:00 pm. Hernandez contacted Tito also to be there as he hadn't played George and Elpidio yet.

George missed some winning lines and lost to Elpidio and later to Tito, who also beats Elpidio to virtually (almost) clinch the title by half a point over his nearest rival. This is due to Menandro's winning over Cyril and Gene on Saturday afternoon.

Tito's maximum points is 17.5 while Hernandez, Manuel and Cyril can have maximum of 17 points if they can win all their remaining matches. (This is assuming that Edwin Acuyan will not be able to play at least 5 games so that he will win by default over him).*

Some interesting matches are set for Saturday: Menandro vs. Jeffrey Negrillo; Cyril vs. Bernard Garcia; Menandro vs. George; Jeffrey vs. Edwin Acuyan at 3:30 pm at PRR Dorm 1; Geroge vs. Gene Pastrana; Pax vs. Jose Celiz; Hernandez vs. Jeffrey at 11:00 pm at PRR Dorm 1; Angie Parrado vs. Elpidio if she can go to Lehn's at 8:00 pm.

Those who want to play with Elpidio, please play with at Lehn's; and Jeffrey vs. Cyril. Menandro is available at 4:00 on Sunday.

THIS IS A SUGGESTON OF HERNANDEZ: After all playable games have been played, the remaining unplayed games of non-rated players will all be losses if he/she has not played less than 10 games (Ann Acebron, Karen Lee, Edwin and Dennis).

All the remaining unplayed games of rated players (Cyril, Boy, Hernandez, Pax, Gene, Bernard and Elpidio) will be declared draws. Elpidio will win also to those unrated players who played less than 10 games.

These are "must play" games for Manik: Against Gene, Hernandez and Cyril. George Anzawa needs to play against Gene and Boy. Those are automatic losses for George and Manik if they failed to play against them.


Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
             Tia Belau Newspaper
             Pages 12-13
             Volume 20  
             Issue 39  
             September 26, 2011