BIG SMILE FOR THE 2-TIME CHAMP
Menandro Manuel recieves the championship trophy from Knights and Rooks Chess Club Chairman Roberto Hernandez after capturing his 2nd title in 2 years. Manuel skipped the ongoing 2005 Open Chess tournament but participated in the mid-year one-day blitz chess festival last July 10 where he finished 2nd to Hernandez, who finished 2nd to him in the 2005 Regular Chess tourney. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
SECOND SEED Cyril Montel, Jr. did a Houdini escape win over Manuel Nedic in a time-pressured match that left him with only 8 minutes left on his clock and started his campaign for a first title in 9 tournaments where he won 4 runner-up trophies.
Nedic was ahead by 2 pawns and had a strong attack and even threatened mate but overlooked his back rank and facing a mate in one, he resigned after 38 moves of Sicilian Defence (Dragon Variation).
He was also ahead in time where he had 45 minutes more than Montel, Jr. who had a sigh of relief after the blunder of Nedic in the last game of the day.
Joel Azana continued his winning ways and trounced Gene Pastrana in 44 moves of Pirc Defence and tie idle Jose Omega and Nedic for the lead even though he lost his second game to Eric Espartero in 42 moves of Modern Defence.
It was the first victory for Espartero since February 6, 2005 to boost his morale for the upcoming tougher opponents.
Omega informed the chairman that he would be absent on the 9th round of the 2005 Open Chess tournament held on Sunday, July 17 at Privilege Store in Malakal and sponsored by Bendix N. Lakobong, Leo Lacambra, Jr. and Roswell Macapagal of T-shirt Printing Atbp.
He said he would set a match with Ivan II Chess Computer at the chairman's residence on Tuesday.
Ivan II Chess Computer collected its 2nd victory by clobbering Jimmy Valenzuela in 28 moves of Four Knights Defence where he deviated from Mario Ramos' variation and was on the defensive most of the time. With threat of losing his queen and a bishop, he resigned without hesitation.
While chess players are playing, avid chess fan Koichi Matsuda barbecued yellow fin tuna beside the tournament site. Players were treated to a sumptuous tuna barbecue courtesy of Matsuda, who showed gratitude for being featured on last week's issue of Chess Mate in Tia Belau.
With lots of excitement and fun in the last week's one-day blitz chess tourney, players have planned another blitz chess tilt, but with different schedule changes like Pastrana and Lin de Guzman, the plan didn't push through.
The July ratings of International Chess Federation (FIDE) shows that Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and India's Viswanathan Anand share the number one spot with an identical rating of 2788 followed by Peter Leko of Hungary with 2763.
Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk is 4th with 2752 followed by reigning classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (2744). At 6th is Peter Svidler with 2738 and Judit Polgar of Hungary, the only woman to land on the top 10 of men's rating, dislodged No. 7 Michael Adams of Britain, who dropped to No. 12.
At 8th is Etienne Bacrot (2729), 9th is Levon Aronian of Armenia who gained 31 points to enter the top 10 for the first time ever. And lastly at 10th is Boris Gelfand of Israel with 2724.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Volume 14 Issue 29
July 22-29, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment