(358) CM GARCIA TOOK A REST FOR THE YEAR

4 GAMES IN 6 WEEKS, 6 GAMES ON 7TH WEEK
Jose Celiz, left, played only 4 games in the first 6 weeks of 2012 PNCC. He played 3 games on Nov. 24 and 3 more games on the next day. It became a subject for having a playoff. CM Bernardo Garcia, right, initiated the proposal.
(Photo by Roberto Hernandez)


*This article should have been the December 10 issue of Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez but because Roberto was late in submitting this article, no Chessmate article was published.





CM GARCIA TOOK A REST
FOR THE YEAR

THERE will be a meeting of all players concerned to resolve the issue of having a playoff for the 2012 Palau National Chess Championship to be held at the residence of Jose Celiz.

The meeting will be held after the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez boxing bout. Earlier this week, CM Bernardo Garcia, who had initiated the proposal of having a playoff, had taken a rest for the remainder of the year. This will make the 4-man playoff between Tito Cabunagan, Roberto Hernandez, Celiz and Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. The following is the email of CM Garcia:

Hi PCF,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Palau Chess Federation, members and especially to Robert and Istanbul Olympiad Team Palau (Robert, Boy, Jamie, Beth, Jan & Sir J).

2012 has been very good for PCF and I was so blessed to be part of it. After getting CM title, gets good wins in 2012 PNCC and was able to contribute to improve PCF tournament format, I feel I already have so many blessings this year with my Chess and decided to take the rest of the year off. If I will be able to get a slot in the playoff, I will give the slot to the next player based on ranking.

All my email about improvements in PCF are all suggestions, it is normal if you may or may not agree with it.

Based on some feedbacks, I believed some intend to finish their elimination games. Since we already have 2 days left, I suggest finishing the elimination in 1st day and 2^nd day will be the playoffs.

In finishing the elimination round in day 1, players may consider to decrease their time control provided that both parties agree. The suggestion will come from players and not arbiter. Robert will explain to the players that decreasing the time control is an advantage to the higher rated player. It will be harder for lower rated player to equalize against strong player if the time control is reduced. Please make sure that the players understand that so they will have fair fight.

Category B will continue their games as normal for the 2 remaining days.

I already forward my request to Robert to review 2011 results and just waiting for the timetable. I also already forward the playoffs format to Robert for review.

I will be on duty on Sunday and will not be able to attend the meeting.

Again, I extend my deepest gratitude to all. I would have not done those things without your support and love to Chess. More power to Palau Chess Federation. – Bernard

Another email from Palau’s Rating Officer and Team Captain in 2 Chess Olympiad Jamie Kenmure stated his preference about having a playoff:

To all players of the PCF,

It has come to my attention there are some players who want a playoff and some players do not. I would just like to point out a couple of things to everyone:

1. Playoffs - a lot of Federations have playoffs or super finals to make it so that the best performed players go through and it also motivates everyone to do their best for a spot in the playoff to be crowned National Champion.
2. Professionalism - If we want to be considered a professional organization, to be able to get funding from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Government, we need to show we have only the best athletes playing in the playoffs in our National Championship and thus I am in full support of a playoff.
3. FIDE - We must all remember that as players, we are under the auspices (body of chess) of FIDE. We must show FIDE that we are trying to develop chess here in Palau, showing that there is a process to become National Champion, and to show we are serious about chess, even if we are a small island nation.

These three (3) is why I am in favor of having a playoff. If we want to make Palau one of the strongest islands in the world, these steps is what needs to be taken into account and to show we are serious about chess.

If everyone could respond to me with their thoughts and please send it as a separate email to me, that would be greatly appreciated or you can send your thoughts to this email but make sure that you say everything you want in one email and then I will respond to everyone at the end.

Yours

Jamie Kenmure