(985) CHECK IT OUT!!! http://palau-chess.blogspot.com (TBN-Jan. 09, 2012)

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.  Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr., left, receives his 5th place prize of Brunch for 2 at PPR from Jamie Kirstie Marcos, the 18-year old beautiful daughter of co-champion Joselito Marcos. Pax nickname might become the "beast" as he showed that character on the chessboard in the last 2 rounds of PIICC. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez - Taken by Jeff Balbalosa)

                 CHECK IT OUT!!!
                     http://palau-chess.blogspot.com


WITH THE help of Papua New Guinea’s Joselito Marcos, Palau got its own website at http://palau-chess.blogspot.com/ and an email address of palau.chess@gmail.com since its inception on December 26, 2011. The website (blogspot) has featured the latest results in the recently concluded 3^rd Palau Invitational International Chess Championship held at Conference Room of Palau Royal Resort on December 14-19, 2011.

The site now has become very popular and many Europeans have visited the site. Strangely, it’s viewed (as at date of post) only by one person from Palau and it's the co-creator of the site—Roberto Hernandez. He has forwarded to many of his chess friends the blogspot site and recently, Palau top player Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. has joined the group.

Marcos submitted the cross-table of the 3^rd PIICC to Mark Crowther of The Week In Chess (TWIC) and it was published at the site http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/twic895.html. Palau invitational is listed as entry number 16. The Palau Chess Federation officers and members are in gratitude to Mr. Marcos for helping promote Palau and Palau Chess to the world. He, his wife and daughter had experienced the Rock Islands tour and a tour to the Capitol in Melekeok to make their 10-day stay in Palau an unforgettable one.

After Hernandez paid Palau more than a year's arrears to World Chess Federation (FIDE) of 249 euros ($331.82) + $40.00 bank charges, the new ratings for the month of January is now published with Montel, Jr. retaining the number one spot with a FIDE rating of 1943, just a mere one point increase from his previous rating.

Menandro Manuel kept the 2^nd spot and gained 31 rating points for being the co-champion of the 3^rd PIICC. Hernandez lost 14 rating points but still in 3^rd at 1875 from his previous 1889. Tito Cabunagan is the biggest loser of rating points—49 after his disappointing performance in that event and is now at 1814 from his best so far 1863.

Paquito ‘Pax’ Suringa added 5 points to his total now at 1734 while Bernard Garcia collected only 2 points at 1663. Jeff Balbalosa jumped from 15^th spot to 14^th after gaining 12 points at 1540. Dennis Gonzales (1611) lost 11 points while 11-year George Anzawa (1398) lost 22 points. The standings of 21 Palau rated players still remain the same except for Balbalosa, who overtook the 14^th spot from Rudel Roxas.

Palau Team Captain in the 2010 World Chess Olympiad in Russia, Jamie Kenmure has retained his position and will spearhead the Palau Team in the 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey to be held from August 27 to September 12, 2012. He already started booking his airfare this early to save.

He suggested to the team members of Palau—Hernandez, Cabunagan, Manuel, Mohammad Manik Hossain and reserve George Anzawa to start booking and he recommends the cheapest one that he’s got at http://www.edreams.com/ which cost $1,200.00 for a round trip ticket from Manila-Istanbul.

Bernard Garcia is asking Hernandez if there is still a place for him to be in line-up for the Istanbul Olympiad. The current available spot for him is to be the team captain of Palau Women’s Team, which is composed of Elizabeth Manuel (Menandro’s wife), Angie Parrado and Adele Anzawa (George mom).

At least 2 more women players are needed to complete a 6-player team. A country with less than 3 members will not be allowed to compete in the Olympiad as experienced by Hernandez and Cabunagan in Russia.

To make the Men’s Team (actually the Open) stronger, Hernandez will propose to Manik Hossain to be the team captain of the women’s team and Garcia will be the Board 3 of the men’s team. Hernandez will be Board 1, Cabunagan at Board 2 and Manuel at Board 4.

If Manuel can score 6 points in 9 games at Board 4, he will become the first titled player of Palau. This strategy was applied by Papua New Guinea in the 2004 Olympiad in Spain where Rupert Jones got his FIDE Master title.

Source:   Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
               Tia Belau Newspaper  
               Pages 9-10
              Volume 21   
              Issue 02    
              January 09, 2012