Romeo Caballes, right, defeated Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II, left, in this final game of qualification round to clinch a spot in the finals of 2009 Palau National Chess Championship. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
DAY OF UPSETS
ALENAIN SEIZES LEAD IN PAX CUP CLASS B
ELPIDIO MANALIGOD was not bothered by an earlier loss to Bernard Garcia in 43 moves of King's Pawn Opening and played with top seed Menandro 'Boy' Manuel (FIDE Rating 1942) in late afternoon of All Saints Day Nov. 01 at D. J. Cruz General Merchandise premises in the resumption of 2009 Palau National Chess Championship.
It's a double-edged game until Elpi managed to post a pawn at h6 on the 37th move. Positional struggle ensued till Manuel touched a wrong rook that forced him to exchange his queen for a pair of rooks.
A clever 4-move queen maneuver by Elpi cost Manuel a pawn and a bishop and his first loss in 53 moves of Sicilian Defence.
Manuel offered a draw on the 46th move that Elpi declined by just smiling and resuming play.
Prior to that upset, another strong player is struggling with time and passive position. With 31 seconds remaining on his clock, Craig Dittrich was mated by Bangladeshi bet Masum Billah on the 35th move of their Queen's Gambit Accepted encounter.
Dittrich is 5 moves short of gaining another 30 minutes on his 41st move while Billah had less than an hour left on his clock.
In the 2nd week of the NCC, Billah upsets Roberto Hernandez for his first win against 5 losses. After his 2nd victory, he suffered his 6th loss 2 hours later to Manuel in 33 moves of another Sicilian Defence.
At 10:30 am, a Class B match was set again for Jaime Guevarra vs. Mario Ramos this time, who arrived at 1:30 pm.
Jaime played with Jose Misael de Jesus instead and suffered back-to-back Sunday losses using the Pirc Defence again in 41 moves.
Of his first 4 moves, 3 are pawn moves. He needs to learn more about Pirc Defence or Yugoslav Defence, which was the pet defence used by Asia's first Grandmaster (GM) Eugene Torre in achieving his final GM norm in the 1974 World Chess Olympiad in Nice, France.
A blitz chess contest was planned at 7 pm but was cancelled when Hernandez had to go back at Palau Royal Resort to play with 2 invited players at the resumption of Paquito Suringa Invitational Rapid Chess tournament at PRR Dorm 1.
He subdued Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II in their first game with the black pieces. He played both Guevarra and Mestizo II at the same time with the white pieces and prevailed in both games.
Another invited player, Arnel Ogalesco, played his second game with Hernandez and the latter handily won. Hernandez played both Suringa and Nino Flores on the afternoon of Nov. 04 and prevailed again in both games but lost the 2nd game to Nino and won his second game with Suringa to totes a 9-1-0 win-loss-draw slate.
Akram Hossain arrived before 7:00 pm and played his 4th game against de Jesus and lost in 39 moves of King's Pawn Opening.
De Jesus or Jimboy is on a roll as he clobbered the player that ousted him to the finals-- Mohammad Manik Hossain in 48 moves of French Defence for his 3rd straight game after a protested first game loss.
Rey Alenain seized the upper hand in Class B of Pax Cup by trouncing top seed Elizalde Madrinan in their second game to overtake erstwhile leader Miguel Gancayco.
Class C (Women's Division) is yet to start when the invited player Kristen Senajon didn't make it on Saturday evening.
CURRENT STANDINGS: Class A --
1. Roberto Hernandez (9-1-0) 2. Andres Mestizo II (5-7-2) 3. Paquito Suringa, Jr. (5-6-1) 4. Arnel Ogalesco (4-3-1) 5. Jaime Guevarra (3-4-3) 6. Nino Flores (3-3-0) 7. Jomar Alerta (1-2-1) 8. Robert Tubice (0-4-0) 9. Joel Flor (0-0-0)
Class B --
1. Rey Alenain (7-3-0) 2. Miguel Gancayco (6-2-1) 3. Elizalde Madrinan (4-2-2) 4. Randy Sioson (5-4-0) 5. Jerome Ratunil (4-4-0) 6. Ferdie Altea (3-3-0) 7. Joel Gabris (4-6-0) 8. George Gabris (2-8-0) 9. Ronel Gutierrez (0-2-0).
Some of the 2009 Palau NCC games can be viewed at website: http://chessconnoisseur.blogspot.com
The Mahor-Mercado, Montel-Suringa, Hernandez-Billah and Mahor-Garcia are featured with an in-depth analysis of Papua New Guinea's top chess player Joselito Marcos.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 18
Issue 45
November 09-15, 2009
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