(949) OPENING DAY -- 2015 PALAU BLITZ CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP (24 PHOTOS) May 10, 2015 at Bethlehem Park

Top seed Tito Cabunagan, left, lost to 8th seed Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. at Board 1 in the Opening round of 2015 Palau Blitz Chess Championship. The Board 2 between 2nd seed Cyril Montel, Jr. and 9th seed Angelica Parrado is still unoccupied. 3rd seed Roberto Hernandez is waiting for 10th seed Jeffrey Balbalosa, who is fixing his camera at the farther middle end. 4th seed CM Bernardo Garcia, middle, subdued 11th seed Destiny Sisior while 5th seed Rustum Cabuso is off to a good start by trouncing Baby Edna Mission. 6th seed Dennis Gonzales made short work of Angelil Sisior and 7th seed Eugene Labarda touted 14th seed Robert Godwin Sola. Newcomer Rey Sanchez had a bye.                  (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

After finishing the 1st round pairings, Jeff Balbalosa, right, is still figuring it out how his digital camera works in time of the 1st round against 3rd seed Roberto Hernandez, middle. Jeff is using the Swiss Perfect software for this event. Toti Abundo has given Palau Chess Federation Swiss Manager software which is being used in most of the FIDE events. Swiss Perfect is being used in Australia.
                                                   (Photo by Roberto Hernandez  --- Taken by Rey Sanchez)

                                                             (Photo by Jeff Balbalosa)

Robert Godwin Sola, left, showed inexperience to the fast paced blitz competition. Although he doesn't need to write chess notations here, it's still fast for him. WELCOME TO THE BLITZ WORLD OF CHESS!
                                                              (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

The final position of Roberto vs. Jeff Balbalosa match. A French Defence encounter with Jeff (black) burdened by a double f pawns. Roberto has 2 connected pawns supported by 2 rooks. At the second to the last move a7, Jeff moved the rook to b7 instead of Ra8 which is also countered by b7. After promoting the a pawn to a queen, Jeff resigned after seeing more loss of pieces and inevitable mate.
                                                             (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Dennis Gonzales, left, plays Angelil Sisior in the 1st round and won. His 2nd opponent in the 2nd round is Angelil's sister Destiny and Dennis won by illegal move by the former. He complained to Roberto about the illegal move. Roberto stopped his clock to attend to the issue. Destiny touched a bishop which is pinned by a rook. Roberto's instant reply: "Sorry, Destiny, you've lost the game."    (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

2nd seed Cyril Montel, Jr., left, shake hands with co-employee Eugene Labarda during the 3rd round action of 2015 Palau Blitz Chess Championship. At the next table, Gonzalo 'Jojo' Escapatoria, Jr. and Roberto Hernandez also shake hands as a sporting gesture.               (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

CM Bernardo Garcia against 2014 Junior Champion Angelil Sisior.     (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Rafael Paloma (1695 blitz rating), middle, missed the event as he and his wife Gladys Anne Paloma (1474) arrived at 3:30 pm after the completion of 1st round. Had they paid the $10.00 registration fee earlier, they should have been included in the pairings and just forfeit the 1st round. One of the strict policy of this event is "NO PAY, NO PLAY". In the previous first 12 years of Palau chess competitions, some players were allowed to play even without paying their registration fee. Some never paid when they see that there is no chance for them to get some prizes. Some took 2 years to pay a measly sum of $10.00. Dennis Gonzales, the current Treasurer of Palau Chess Federation, is always the first one to pay his registration fees in all the chess competitions in Palau that he participated in.                  (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Final position of 2nd round game of Angie Parrado vs. Roberto, who captured the knight on f3 with his white bishop. Instead of capturing it with a pawn or bishop, Angie captured it with a rook, leaving his queen unprotected. Roberto is about to win another rook.  2nd straight win  for Roberto.
                                                                           (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Newcomer Rey Sanchez, left, against Rustum Cabuso. Dennis Gonzales is in the middle. Sanchez lost his queen to Dennis when he let off his hand from his queen. He said he hasn't press the clock yet so he can still change the move. Roberto explained to him that once you let a piece off your hand, it's your final move even if you haven't press your clock. More lessons learned by neophyte Rey.  (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

2nd round action -- Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr., left, vs. Cyril Montel, Jr.; Dennis Gonzales vs. Rey Sanchez; Tito Cabunagan vs. Eugene Labarda and Roberto Hernandez vs. 2014 PNCC Women Champion Angelica Parrado.                                                          (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

 

 The final position of the 3rd round pairings of Roberto Hernandez vs. Gonzalo "Jojo" Escapatoria, Jr. match. Jojo's queen on a2 captured the pawn on b2, leaving his rook at g8 unprotected as it is attack by the queen on h7. After this capture, Jojo is about to be mated with his forced reply of Bd8 by Qxd8 mate. Third straight win for Roberto.
                                                         (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

TOP THREE BOARDS 4th round pairings ---Cyril Montel, Jr., left, vs. Rey Sanchez; Rustum Cabuso vs. Tito Cabunagan and Roberto Hernandez vs. Dennis Gonzales.            (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Final position of Roberto vs. Dennis Gonzales in their Danish Gambit encounter. Roberto still has a minute and 22 seconds left while Dennis got 31 seconds with only a king left and in a hopeless position. Roberto scored 4 straight points so did Cyril to set up the 5th round clash of the 2nd and 3rd seed.
                                                        (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

5th and last round for the day pairings -- Tito Cabunagan, left, vs. Angelica Parrado; Dennis Gonzales vs. Eugene Labarda; Jeffrey Balbalosa vs. Robert Godwin Sola.     (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

At the other top boards are Rustum Cabuso, left, vs. Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. (1-0) and CM Bernardo Garcia, middle, vs. newcomer Rey Sanchez (1-0). Rustum won his 5th straight to set a 6th round match with Roberto on May 17, 2015.                                          (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

13 years ago, Cyril, left, used to play 1. e4 as white. Now, he always play 1. d4 as white as the case here in the 5th round of 2015 Palau Blitz Chess Championship. In the 2014-2015 Palau National Chess Championship, Roberto answered Cyril's 1. d4 with g6 and lost a piece in the middle game. This time, Roberto employed his pet Dutch Defence in which Cyril is unfamiliar with. Rustum Cabuso, 2nd from right, also collected his 5th straight win by trouncing Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr.      (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

THE FINAL POSITION OF THE 5th ROUND GAME BETWEEN 2ND SEED CYRIL MONTEL, JR. (WHITE) AGAINST 3RD SEED ROBERTO HERNANDEZ THAT ENDED IN JUST 18 MOVES OF DUTCH DEFENCE. MONTEL, SHOWED UNFAMILIARITY WITH THE DUTCH. HE GETS HIS QUEEN OUT OF ACTION WITH A CHECK ON h5 on the 9th move.

THE MOVES:
Cyril Montel, Jr. (White) vs. Roberto Hernandez (Black)                     May 10, 2015
     1. d4  f5 2. Nc3 Nf6 3. Bg5 e6 4. e4 Bb4 5. e5 Bxc3+ 6. bxc3 h6 7. Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 Ne4 9. Qh5+ Kf8 10. f3 Nxc3 11. Ne2 Nd5 12. c4 Ne3 13. Rc1 Qe7 14. f4 Qb4+ 15. Kf2 Ng5+ 16. Kg1 Qd2 17. h4 Qe3+ 18. Bf2 Qxf2#                         0-1



STANDINGS AFTER 5 ROUNDS:

                                              Rating     Win      Loss           Total
1. Hernandez, Roberto      1776           5            0              5 pts.
2. Cabuso, Rustum             1674           5            0              5
3. Montel, Jr., Cyril            1785           4            1               4
4. Cabunagan, Tito             1813           3            2               3
5. Labarda, Eugene             1641          3            2               3
6. Balbalosa, Jeffrey           1551           3            2               3
7. Gonzales, Dennis            1671           3            2               3
8. Garcia, Bernard               1732          3            2               3
9. Escapatoria, Jr., Gonzalo 1608       2            3               2
10. Sisior, Destiny                 1529        2            3               2
11. Parrado, Angelica            1585        1            4               1
12. Mission, Baby Edna        1516         1            4               1
13. Sanchez, Rey                                    1            4               1
14. Sola, Robert Godwin      1341         1            4               1
15. Sisior, Angelil                  1452         0           5               0                     
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2223213667651635496#editor/target=post;postID=345990309813647207;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=7;src=link

:     SAME VENUE, SAME PLAYERS, SAME RESULTS?

                 The last FIDE rated Palau Blitz Chess Championship was 2 years ago at Bethlehem Park. It’s a one-month tournament and double round-robin. In this photo, Roberto and Rustum Cabuso split their games. They are among the firsts who confirmed their participation. This year’s PBCC is a 9-round Swiss system. The 2 might face each other in the later rounds. ***They will! After topping the first 5 rounds undefeated on May 10, 2015, the duo will face each other in the 6th round on May 17, at Bethlehem Park. (Updated May 10, 2015)

                                                                                    (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

           2015 PALAU BLITZ CHESS

                    CHAMPIONSHIP

                    on May 10 and May 17, 2015

THE FIRST chess tournament of 2015 will fire off on Sunday, May 10 at Bethlehem Park starting at 2pm. It’s the 2015 Palau Blitz Chess Championship with 36 or more players to participate in the biggest blitz chess tourney in Palau in terms of participants, cash prizes and trophies.

It’s a 9-round Open Swiss system event with the first 5 rounds to be played on May 10. The last 4 rounds will be played on May 17 after which the cash prizes and trophies will be given right away.

The cash prizes are 1^st--$150.00 + trophy; 2^nd --$125.00 + trophy; 3^rd -- $100.00 + trophy; 4^th --#75.00 + trophy and 5^th--$50.00 + trophy. The 6^th-10^th placers will get $20.00 each but no trophies. There will be a special prize of $50.00 for the best placed woman player and another $50.00 to the best placed junior player.

Registration fee is $10.00 which must be paid before being allowed to play. All participants must provide their email addresses as per new FIDE rule to make this tournament rated. If a contestant doesn’t have a blitz rating, his/her rating will be his/her standard rating.

The time control is 5 minutes for each player to finish the game with 3 seconds increment. If the clock to be used is mechanical, it will be 10 minutes for each player to finish the game. The FIDE Laws of Chess will be posted at the tournament size for players’ referral.

The Chief Arbiter is Roberto Hernandez. His Deputies are CM Bernardo Garcia and Dennis Gonzales. If there is conflict (illegal move, increment not working, touch move violation, etc) and the 3 Arbiters are playing, Hernandez will stop his clock to attend and resolve the complaint.

In Palau, the word “check” must be said a little louder if a player is attacking the king of his/her opponent. If he/she didn’t say “check” and the player make an illegal move, it will be replayed. If a player made an illegal move, his opponent must not make a move. Instead, he should inform that player that he/she made an illegal move and the game is over. The game will continue if a player didn’t claim a win by telling his/her opponent that he/she made an illegal move.

         THE FOLLOWING ARE THE POSSIBLE CONTESTANTS WITH THEIR BLITZ OR STANDARD RATINGS:

1. Tito Cabunagan (1813) 2. Cyril Montel, Jr. (1785) 3. Roberto Hernandez (1776) 4. Bernardo Garcia (1732-Standard) 5. Rafael Paloma (1695) 6. Rustum Cabuso (1674) 7. Dennis Gonzales (1671) 8. Eugene Labarda (1641) 9. Paquito Suringa, Jr. (1625) 10. Nilo de Jesus (1615) 11. Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. (1618 –S) 12. Remrel Dizon (1596) 13. Angelica Parrado (1585) 14. Mohammad Manik Hossain (1558) 15. Jeffrey Balbalosa (1551) 16. Baby Edna Mission (1516-(S) 17. Destiny Sisior (1499-(S) 18. Manuel Mahor, Jr. (1489-(S) 19. Jaime dela Cruz (1497) 20. Gladys Anne Paloma (1474) 21. Felix Oling (1465-(S) 22. Angelil Sisor (1452-(S) 23. Leif Toribiong (1438-(S) 24. Christopher Kitalong (1437-(S) 25. Arnold Undecimo (1435) 26. Cris Ulap (1401) 27. Geoff Martin (1358) 28. Robert Sola (1341-(S) 29. Tuloy Rengiil (1318-(S) 30. Glen Navarroza (1292-(S) 31. Joey Balute (1148-(S) 32. Roxanne Parco (1146-(S) 33. Nelson Sablan (1063-(S) 34. Tutii Joe Chilton 35. Morton Sawaichi 36. Rey Sanchez

                In the first round, the No. 1 will play against No. 18; No. 2 vs. No. 19; No. 3 vs. No. 20 etc. In round 2, winners will play against winners; losers vs. losers, and so on…

                Solution to last week’s puzzle No. 3742: 1. Bf8+ Bh5 2. Qxh5+!! gxh5 3. Rh6 mate.

                This week’s puzzle No. 3863:  White to move and mates in 3 (Solution next issue)

Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez

             Tia Belau Newspaper

             Page 9

             Volume 24 

             Issue 36

             May 04, 2015 

Source: The History of Chess in Palau
             By Roberto Hernandez
             May 10, 2015
             To be published as a book in the future