She is the youngest participant in the
women’s section of 2014 World Chess Olympiad. The daughter of Palauan Harvey
Sisior scored 2 wins and almost won her last game but couldn’t hang on to her
advantage. Typical of a youngster, her time management still needs improvement.
It’s written on the website …. “Destiny Sisior, 10 years old, from Palau. No
words are needed…”
(Photo by Eric Ksau Surangel Whipps)
CHINA -- 1st CHESS OLYMPIAD
OPEN TITLE; BREAKTHROUGH
FOR PALAU CHESS
CHINA -- 1st CHESS OLYMPIAD
OPEN TITLE; BREAKTHROUGH
FOR PALAU CHESS
THE 2014 World Chess Olympiad in
Tromso, Norway has broken many records in terms of participating nations with
these facts and figures—
It was held from Aug. 01-14,
2014 with 11 days of competitions. It’s the first time that a Chess Olympiad
has been arranged in the North of Norway—and this is the largest sporting event
ever held there AND the 4th LARGEST SPORTING EVENT IN THE WORLD
MEASURED BY THE NUMBER OF PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES… 174.
There are 1,800 participating
players and team captains. There are 174 teams competing in the open section
and 137 teams competing in the women’s section.
There are 250 accredited
journalists and a whooping 3,000 total participants. THE ESTIMATED ONLINE
AUDIENCE IS 100 MILLION PEOPLE!
The Chess Olympiad Arena have
7,500 square meters of playing venue that used to house Mack—the world’s
Northernmost brewery.
The Opening and Closing Ceremony
was held at Skarphallen.
The Palau Open (Men) Team, who
has an average rating of 1796 and is seeded 149, is composed of 1. Jamie
Kenmure (Team Captain); 2. Roberto Hernandez (1845 rating – Board 1); 3. Cyril
Tomas Montel, Jr. (1848 – Board 2); 4. CM Bernardo Garcia (1769—Board 3); 5.
Dennis Gonzales (1720—Board 4) and Jeffrey Balbalosa (1723—Board 5/Reserve).
It’s the first Chess Olympiad
that Palau has a women’s team, who has an average rating of 1545 and is
composed of 1. Eric Ksau Surangel Whipps (Team Captain); 2. Angelica Parrado
(1628—Board 1); 3. Baby Edna Mission (1546—Board 2); 4. Gladys Anne Paloma
(1472—Board 3); 5. Destiny Sisior (1536—Board 4) and Joy Flores Whipps
(1305—Board 5/Reserve).
BOTH OPEN/MEN AND WOMEN’S TEAMS
OF PALAU HAVE QUALIFIED PLAYERS ACCORDING TO THE RULES OF WORLD CHESS
FEDERATION (FIDE). Three of them have been playing active chess since 2002, one
since 2004, one since 2009, one since 2010 and the rest at least 2 years of
active participation in the latest chess tournaments (local or international).
Destiny Sisior is the youngest
participant in this Chess Olympiad and she was featured in national television,
newspaper and official website of the event. At the closing ceremony, she was
shown (close-up) at least 5 times. People are recognizing her during check-in of
Palau team in going back to Manila via Bodo, Norway-Oslo, Norway-Helsinki,
Finland and to Hong Kong.
At the Opening Ceremony, when
Palau name was called, all 12 team members, in complete uniform, stand up,
shouted and greeted the audience. It was one of the loudest and some people
said, “Palau?” “Where is Palau?”
The Palau team also has a
souvenir photo with Tromso Mayor Jens Johan Hjort and Susan Polgar, 4-time former
Woman World Chess Champion. She is now the trainer/coach of Philippine top
player Wesley So, who skipped this event to be the coach of USA Open team.
In the first round, the Men/Open
team was fitted against Colombia, who has 1 Grandmaster (GM) and 3
International Masters (IM) while the Palau women’s team is up against the
Philippine team. Both Palau teams were swept by their respective opponents with
Roberto bowing to GM Jaime Alexander Cuartas in 55 moves of Bird’s Opening and
Angie succumbed to WIM Cheradee Camacho.
Another sweep by their opponents
in the 2nd round where the men/open team facing IPCA (International
Physically Disabled Chess Association) with Roberto bowing to Russian IM Andrey
Ododchuk, who became his friend on Facebook later.
In the 3rd round,
Roberto averted a shutout from Guam, who also had all 6 of their members
Philippine citizens. Cyril won the queen of his opponent, Rudolph Soriano, but
can’t convert his advantage and lost instead. Thus, Roberto scored the first
half point of Palau team in this Olympiad.
CM Bernard Garcia did it in 2012
World Chess Olympiad. After being swept in the first 3 rounds by Qatar, Iraq
and Maldives, he scored a draw against Hong Kong and won his next 3 games to
give Palau its first title by scoring 3.5 points in 7 games or 50% performance.
Angie likewise scored the first
half point of Palau women’s team with a draw against his African opponent in
the 4th round, where Roberto rested and the Open/Men team was swept
by Honduras. Angie is ahead in material and position but she doesn’t want to
lose the women team’s first half point.
After 11 rounds, China won its
first Olympiad gold in Open section followed by Hungary and India, another
Asian powerhouse without former 5-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.
Current world champion Norwegian
Magnus Carlsen played at Board 1 for Norway. He lost 2 straight in the 9th
and 10th round and didn’t play in the final round (11th).
THERE WILL BE MORE NEWS ABOUT
THE OLYMPIAD on the NEXT ISSUE.
Solution to last week’s puzzle:
(The same as last week’s issue)
This week’s puzzle: White to
move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 10-11
Volume 23
Issue 68
August 25, 2014
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