THIS YEAR'S National Chess Championship attracts 21 chess players all around Palau to test their chess savvy and get a chance to have international ranking.
It is more than double of the last year's participants with the inclusion of inactive player Jose Misael G. de Jesus, Jr. or 'Jimboy', who played the first game of NCC on Saturday, April 26 against Koror State Legal Counsel Craig Dittrich in their Bishop Openig game.
Dittrich sacrficed a knight for a pawn on the 19th move and obtain a strong attack but overlooked another neat knight sacrifice two moves later and succumbed to pressure and resigned on the 28th move.
The first game on Sunday, April 27 was between 28-year old Michael Mercado vs. Jaime Guevarra, a 36-year old pastry chef at Palau Royal Resort and having his rare Sunday day off. Even without much preparation, Guevarra prevailed in 40 moves of Center Counter.
The surprise entree of the NCC is Ken Pastrana, the 10-year old youngest son of Gene Pastrana, who is Palau no. 4 with FIDE rating of 1870 and the venue host of the event which is Jean's Boutique and Store, just across Maris Stella School.
Another surprise entrant is Mohammad Manik Hossain, a Bangladesh national, who always practice with the older Pastrana on weekends.
Ken and Hossain played on Sunday and they drew their game via stalemate as Ken failed to maintain his overwhelming advantage into a victory in another Center Counter game.
Blitz chess specialist Tony Villa scored five consecutive wins against Hossain in 24 moves of Queen's Pawn Opening; over Jimboy in 27 moves of Bishop Opening; against Mercado in a marathon 76 moves of Queen's Pawn Opening; over Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II and basketball player Eric Espartero, who trounced Hossain in 54 moves of Petroff Defence.
Villa will be having a vacation on May 29 and he likes to finish all his games before going. Players are requested to play with him even on non-playing days.
Guevarra halved the point with Jimboy in 40 moves of King's Pawn Opening after realizing that there is no breakthrough in their bishop of opposite color endgame. And Guevarra had a 50% day of chess after losing to Palau's number 2 Jose Omega in their Sicilian Defence game encounter.
Mestizo was winless in 3 tries as he lost also to Jimboy and Espartero. He's neophyte in tournament game where writing chess notations is mandatory. The same fate happened to Mercado as he lost his third game to Espartero.
Omega has set a match against Dennis Lara, a cook at Palau Royal Resort, on Tuesday, April 29 at 12:00 to 3:00 pm at Dormitory 1 of PRR.
Other players who haven't seen action in the opening day are Menandro Manuel, Cyril Montel, Jr., Manny Nedic, who showed up but didn't play, Jess Toldoya, Arnel Pama, Elizalde Madrinan, Paquito Suringa (on vacation and will be back on May 14), Palau's no. 5 Roberto Hernandez, PRR Musician, and Jan Berglund, the International Arbiter/Trainer from Sweden who will come to Palau on May 15.
The tournament is still open to interested players like Dennis Gonzales, Val Vidar of PPR and the new worker (4-time champion in Philippines). Registration fee is $20.00. For more information, please call Roberto Hernandez at 488-2000 ext 114 or Gene Pastrana at 488-4640.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 13 & 15
Volume 28
May 02-08, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment