RAPID CHESS TILT STARTS WITH A BANG
(Temaungil Elected PCF Chairman)
TWENTY matches were played at the opening round of 2005 Rapid Chess tournament held on Sunday, October 23 at the premises at Jean's Boutique and sponsored by its owner Helena Yoichi and its manager Gene Pastrana.
Four newcomers tested their mettle with fellow newcomers and lowly rated players.
The newcomers are Francis 'Sno' Temaungil, John Pastrana, 29, (oldest son of Gene), Flavin Andres and Felix Lapitan, who is now the surprise leader with 3 straight victories over Temaungil and James dela Cruz (2 games).
Andres managed to get a whole point out of 8 games over the younger Pastrana. He lost 2 games each to Temaungil and Tutii Joe Chilton.
He also bowed to Jimmy Valenzuela, Morton Sawaichi and dela Cruz in the last game of the day.
Comeback kid Gerry Sermeno played only one game and outwitted dela Cruz.
Fifth seed Roberto Hernandez trounced Sawaichi in 50 moves of Dutch Defence and Cyril Montel, Jr. halved the point with Valenzuela in a book-line rook endgame.
Two-time champ Menandro Manuel is in solo 2nd spot after clobbering the older Pastrana and dela Cruz.
Lapitan, who works at Palau Royal Resort, seemed to be the strongest player among the newcomers but Andres is the one willing to learn as many as he could and has a different strategy to the game.
Lapitan was a regular observer of the 2005 Open Chess tourney held at Privelege Store in Malakal where only one game was played in the opening round (Sawaichi vs. Chilton, which eventually became the winner of brilliancy prize).
Two other newcomers have registered. They are Noel Morin and Rogelio Menor, who paid his registration fee of $15.00 but didn't play a single game. He will play at least 3 games next Sunday.
Top seed and defending champion Jose Omega and Manuel Nedic showed up but didn't play because they are busy.
Second seed Bong Alipoon is still on vacation. Dennis Gonzales also didn't show up but he called the Chairman last week about the willingness of the manager of Pinoy Express Remittance (Manny Kimpo) to donate financial contribution for Palau's membership fee of $476.00 to World Chess Federation (FIDE).
In a snap election held during the games, Temaungil was elected as the new Palau Chess Federation Chairman.
Sawaichi will be the Vice Chairman and Hernandez as Secretary/Treasurer.
Chilton refused to be an official as he is busy with other positions. Temaungil seemed to be reluctant about the nomination but when he heard the support of everybody, he gratefully accepted the position.
He is the oldest competitor in the tournament and his election will solidify his inclusion into the 6-man team that will represent Palau in the 2006 World Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy.
Chilton will work on how PCF could become an affiliate of Palau National Olympic Committe.
PCF is a non-profit federation and Knights and Rooks Chess Club will become under the PCF.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Volume XIV
Issue 43
October 28-November 04, 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment