After defeating 6th seed Paquito Suringa, Jr. in the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) premises, Rustum Cabuso, right, clobbered Dennis Gonzales on Sunday, September 01 at Bethlehem Park and 2nd seed Roberto Hernandez, left, on Sept. 05 at INC again. He's now trailing Jose Celiz in the standings of the Top 12 Division of 2013 PNCC. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
CYRIL, TITO, ROBERTO STRUGGLE
THE 5th week of the 2013 Palau National Chess
Championship showed how deep is the Top 12 Division with the top 3 players of
Palau (Cyril, Roberto and Tito) suffering setbacks after setbacks.
The
first to fall was 2nd seed NM, NA Roberto Hernandez, who was upset
by Jeff Balbalosa in 52 moves of Pirc Defence where Hernandez blundered on the
45th move and let his 2-pawn advantage slipped away and when another
blunder capture occurred on the 51st move, he’s staring at an
unstoppable mate in one and resigned in frustration.
Days
later, Jeff attributed the loss to Roberto’s not focus to the whole game
because every time that there is a new game to start, he stands up to give the
players score sheets, pens, set the time clock, take a photo before they start
their games. Roberto is not focus also to the game when he played Dennis
Gonzales in the 3rd week but he luckily won that game.
It
happens also during the 2012 PNCC where Roberto is also the Chief Arbiter.
During his game against Tito, there’s a phone call from Angie Parrado asking if
there are opponents for her and her 2 daughters. While texting her back,
Roberto’s clock is running. Tito didn’t even bother to stop the clock in
recognition of Roberto’s doing all the jobs of an arbiter, organizer and
player.
It
also happened to his game against CM Bernardo Garcia and he lost those games to
them. Only Remy Mingo in the 2002 All-Filipino Chess Tournament bothered to
disregard the clock because Roberto is doing a lot of things during a
tournament where he is also a participant.
Roberto
has 2 Deputy Arbiters in this tourney – Garcia and Gonzales but they are also
playing so Roberto really has to do it all on his own. Next time, he will stop
his clock when attending to other players’ needs.
Top
seed Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. suffered his 2nd straight loss to Nilo
de Jesus in a marathon 72 moves of Giocco Piano where the former blundered away
a piece in the middle game. De Jesus cautiously held on to his advantage of a
king and 2 queens against Cyril’s king and a pawn.
CM
Garcia likewise lost in the 5th week to 4th seed Jose
Celiz in 67 moves of English Opening where Garcia had 2 rooks against a queen
of Celiz, who is now the surprise leader of their division with 3.5 points out
of 4 games.
Celiz is followed by Rustum
Cabuso with 3 straight wins after clobbering Hernandez in a special game held
at Iglesia Ni Cristo on Thursday evening from 11:30pm-3:15 am, where Hernandez
is ahead by a knight in exchange of 3 pawns. With Cabuso’s queen out of action,
a mistake in the capture allowed Cabuso’s queen to be active again and forced
Hernandez’ resignation after 52 moves of Danish Gambit.
National
Master Tito Cabunagan won over Eugenio Pastrana earlier but lost to Dennis
Gonzales in their 2nd game of the day in 47 moves of Sicilian
Defence. It was Gonzales’ first win in 5 games afterlosing earlier to Cabuso in
another marathon 78 moves of Queen’s Gambit Declined.
In
the Reserve Division, Eugene Labarda became the first player of this tourney to
score 4 points after drubbing Glen Navarosa in 54 moves of Irregular Opening.
Navarosa is still scoreless.
Labarda
is followed by the undefeated Jun Mahor (3-0) and the surging Remrel Dizon
(3-1) after he touted Alfredo Pacenos, Jr. in 38 moves of French Defence.
The
special
game on Saturday at 8am of Celiz vs. Paquito Suringa, Jr. was reset on
Sunday after Paquito’s time schedule was suddenly changed to morning
shift. He
can play now from 2pm onwards. Hernandez and Pastrana will play their
game at
the latter’s residence on Saturday at 2pm in which Roberto scored his
3rd win by outlasting Pastrana in 43 moves of Dutch Defence.
Pastrana and Cabuso are playing as of press time deadline.
Cabuso texted Roberto and said he lost his game against Pastrana. Roberto replied, "It's okay. Seven more games to be played." (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
While playing piano at Waves Restaurant of Palau Royal Resort, Pastrana texted Roberto confirming his victory. Roberto congratulated him and said it's Rustum's first loss. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
In my casual conversation with Rustum Sept. 16, he complain about Gene's unsportsmanlike conduct during this game. That Gene is lazy enough not to write their moves. When it's Rustum's turn to move, Gene will borrow his score sheet and copy the moves. Cyril suggested to him that he must not let Gene copy it and must put his score sheet face down so that he cannot copy it. Gene is known to commit a lot of unsportsmanlike conduct since 2005. BAD HABITS DIE HARD. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 9 & 10
Volume 22
Issue 72
September 09, 2013
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