Edward Agravante, left, plays against former champion Eddie Grefiel in the classification round of 2004 Open Chess tournament. Edward showed potentially good playing skills but unfortunately, he left Palau for good and didn't finish his last 2 remaining games in the classification round. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
AGRAVANTE NIPS MANUEL
IT'S A day of upsets in the 3rd round of the 2004 Open Chess tournament held on Sunday, July 25 at Filco Thrift Mart in Malakal sponsored and hosted by Nestor Canaria.
Edward Agravante, one of 4 newcomers and a bartender at Island Bar that is just across the tournament site, defeated former champion Menandro Manuel with a superb handling of endgame of rook and pawns. He now has a 2-1 win-loss record.
Jose Omega clustered a crucial win over 3rd seed Roberto Hernandez in a Modern Defence game that gives Omega a chance to make it to Class A championship.
He finished the 5-round classification with a 2-3 record. Hernandez is ahead by a rook and when they exchanged queens, it is Omega who is ahead by a pawn.
On the 5th to the last move, Hernandez missed the Kd6 move that would have prevented the promotion of Omega's pawn due to extreme time pressure. He has 3 minutes left in his clock against more than 20 minutes to Omega's.
In the other upset of the day, Jimmy Valenzuela scored his first win over Manuel in a very complicated middle game that both players thwarted mating threats.
In the end, Manuel succumbed to pressure of Valenzuela's queen and strong passed pawn. With the loss, Manuel finished the classification round with the same score as Omega.
They have to wait for the results of remaining 2 rounds to see if they will make it to Class A. The Solkoff system of tiebreak will be used to determine the qualified players.
In the other completed games, defending champion Jess Toldoya took the measure of Bong Alipoon in a Pirc Defence game. Cyril Montel, Jr. (3-1) defeat Omega in the first game to qualify at Class A and finally, Morton Sawaichi lost to Ivan II Chess Computer in 44 moves of a Sicilian Defence.
Sawaichi, a 37-year old Palauan bouncer of Island Bar, lost a pawn in the early part of the game and was mated by a pawn in the end. He was amazed by the strong play of Ivan II. He suffered his 3rd straight loss in the very first tournament that he participated in.
4th round and special 5th round pairings of classification: (First name to play white) 1. Eddie Grefiel (3-0) vs. Montel, Jr. (3-1) 2. Hernandez (1-2) vs. Den Canaria (1-2) 3. Joel Azana (2-2) vs. Alipoon (2-1) 4. Mariano Agustin, Jr. (0-1) vs. Sawaichi (0-3) 5. Ivan II (1-1) vs. Agravante (2-1); Alipoon vs. Grefiel; Ivan II vs. Agustin, Jr. and Agustin, Jr. vs. Valenzuela (2-2).
Absent players will lose by default if they will not notify the chairman one day before the game.
Valenzuela took advantage of borrowing a book from the chairman (Hernandez). He borrowed one book, The Modern Defence, for 2 weeks.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
July 24-30, 2004
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