THE
INAUGURAL edition of the Palau International Chess Championship will
always be associated with Hilton Bennett of New Zealand.
Bennett,
who has an ELO rating of 2093, won the title just 0.5 ahead from
runner-up Almario Marlon Bernardino of the Philippines last night at
Palasia Hotel.
Bennett
finished with 7 points built around 5 wins, and 4 draws and no loss
after 9 games in this single round-robin tournament sanctioned by the
International Chess Federation (FIDE), the world's governing body in
chess.
Bernardino, a US and national master, agreed to a quick draw in his final match with Bennett and closed out with 6.5 points.
Another
player from New Zealand (Paul Spiller) was third with 6 points.
Menandro Manuel came in 4th after finishing with 4.5 points, same as 5th
placer Gary Bekker of Australia.
Manuel, the top finisher among the Palau-based players, earned more points in the Sonneborn Berger tiebreak system.
Completing
the 10-man field tournament are Gene Pastrana (3.5), Cyril Montel, Jr.
(3.5), Jose Omega (3.5), Manny Nedic (3.0) and Roberto Hernandez (3.0)
"It
was a good event, an endurable one. I think that the objective has been
achieved. It was a great experience to play here. All the players in
Palau have earned international points. They were tough," said Bennett,
who won his last title two years ago in a similar tournament in Fiji. He
is within the top 20 players of New Zealand.
The
week-long event was organized by the Palau Chess Federation and the
Knights and Rooks Chess Club of Palau through the guidance and personal
funding of Bekker, the President of Oceania Zone of FIDE.
Bekker
said that from this small steps "we are going to snowball after
Philippine Ambassador to Palau Ramoncito Marino promised to personally
fund the prizes in next year's Ambassador's Cup but Bekker must make
sure to bring in players again.
"I'm
very much delighted. Every local players have score points. The level
of competition he said is stronger compared to players from Fiji and
Papua New Guinea. Palau is one of the strongest team in the Pacific. It
has more depth," said Bekker, who commended the efforts of Knights and
Rooks Chess Club chairman Roberto Hernandez and PCF President Sno
Temaungil in staging the event.
Meanwhile,
Spiller promised to finance the trip of one player from Palau to the
next Zonal Championships in Fiji in May next year.
Bekker
said that there would be two players to go to the Zonals, which is the
qualifying tournament for a spot to the World Championships.
Palau
has officially gained membership with FIDE last February and can send a
team to the Chess Olympiad, which was just recently held in Turin,
Italy last May.
In order to play in the championship, a local player must earn the needed points known as the Elo rating.
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players.
It was originally invented as an improved chess rating system.
"Elo"
is often written in capital letters (ELO), but it is not an acronym. It
is the family name of the system's creator Arpad Elo (1903-1992), a
Hungarian-born American physics professor.
After he left Hungary, Elo spelled his own name "Elo", a common anglicination.
With report from Nazario Rodriguez, Jr. (Horizon News Staff)
Source:
Palau Horizon
Vol. 9 No. 11
Page 16
Tuesday September 5-7, 2006
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| Eventual Champion Hilton Bennett vs. Eugenio Pastrana |
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| USA and Philippine Chess Master Almario Marlon Bernardino, Jr. in deep thought vs. Roberto Hernandez. Marlon crushed the pet defense of Hernandez (Dutch) to lead the event in early rounds. |
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| Jose Omega, left, vs. Roberto Hernandez while Marlon is having a sip of coffee. |
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| Third placer Paul Spiller is also unbeaten the whole event. He's facing Omega here while Jess Toldoya acted as one of the deputy arbiter together with Francis 'Sno' Temaungil, the chairman of Palau Chess Federation. |
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