Australia's top chess player Grandmaster (GM) Zong-Yuan Zhao, right is a roommate of Roberto Hernandez, left, during the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Australia. He's also a musician like Roberto and plays flute. The other roommates of Roberto were FIDE Master (FM) Rupert Jones of Papua New Guinea, Candidate Master (CM) Manoj Kumar of Fiji and Fernandro Aguilar of Solomon Islands.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
CYRIL & TITO: THE UNBEATABLES
SECOND SEED Cyril Montel, Jr. is on a roll as he collected his 6th straight victory by clobbering top qualifier Michael Mercado in a marathon 70 moves of Gruenfeld Defence last Sunday, December 06 in the resumption of 2009 Palau National Chess Championship at D. J. Cruz General Merchandise premises.
Not to be overshadowed is the perfect 7-0 slate of Tito Cabunangan in the consolation round (Class B) after outsmarting Gonzalo Escapatoria in the resumption of their adjourned game with the latter resigning on the 43 moves of Center Counter.
Mercado bounced back from defeat and dealt Masum Billah his 8th loss in 33 moves of Slav Defence. Billah finished the NCC with 3 wins (over 4th seed Roberto Hernandez, Elpidio Manaligod and Craig Dittrich) and lost to the other 8 finalists.
In a special game held on Dec. 05, venue host Gene Pastrana bowed to Palau's number one player Menandro 'Boy' Manuel in 56 moves of Ruy Lopez (Spanish Defence).
Pastrana is requesting the other players that he had not played yet to play with him on any other day except Sunday. He's very busy on Sunday attending to the needs of NCC players and acting as arbiter.
Bernard Garcia, I. T. Manager of Palau Pacific Resort, tried to set a match with Hernandez but was asked to work overtime at PRR for changing their I. T. system with two Singapore nationals. He hopes to play at least 2 games on Sunday.
Windsor John Genova, a former reporter/writer of Tia Belau News, is now the editor and layout artist of The International Filipino, a new newspaper/magazine on overseas Filipinos.
He asked Hernandez to contribute a 700-word story about his extraordinary efforts in promoting chess in Palau. It is for the 2nd issue of TIF on Dec. 16-31, 2009.
Also about submitting the article, Mr. Casto Abundo, Deputy President of Asian Chess Federation, emailed Hernandez also and said that they will publish that story in the Asian Chess Federation site and asked Hernandez to send some pictures to go with the story, his, his family and chess in Palau.
The Executive Director of World Chess Federation (FIDE) Davit Jarrett, also emailed Hernandez that FIDE is creating an archive of all publications that include chess, whether in newspaper or magazines.
He asked to forward them a list of such publications in Palau, including names, addresses and emails of the publication.
They would also be grateful for a list of chess journalists with their names, addresses and emails and kindly forward the information to the FIDE Secretariat: office@fide.com
The Edgar Cayanan Cup Rapid Chess tournament was postponed due to the schedule conflict of most participants, who are also busy preparing for their production numbers for the Christmas party of PRR staff at Rip Tide on Dec. 19.
The NCC is sponsored by Bobby Pineda, Jun dela Cruz and Ogie Pineda ($60.00 cash prize) and by Bhoey Gopez of Island Logistics, Lucio Bandibas of WCTC and by Ed Martinez of Print Zone (5 trophies).
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
Issue 50
December 14-20, 2009
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