PALAU NOW HAS 21
FIDE RATED PLAYERS
THE NEW rating for the month of November has been published by World Chess Federation (FIDE) and it listed Palau at 142 among 145 countries just ahead of Macau, Bahamas and Chinese Taipei.
The average rating of its top 10 players is 1770 with top seed Russia at number 1 with 2747, Ukraine (2695), France (2669), China (2658), Hungary (2657), Armenia (2655), USA (2644), Israel (2644), India (2642) and Azerbaijan (2642).
After being co-champion in the recently concluded 2011 Palau National Chess Championship, Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr. kept his hold of being Palau's top rated player with a gain of just one point (from 1941 to 1942).
Menandro 'Boy' Manuel stayed at No. 2 but lost 19 rating points due to his first round defeat from Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr. and a draw with Angie Parrado in the 2nd round. A draw also with co-champion Tito Cabunagan in the middle of the tourney and another loss to Dennis Gonzales in the final round on September 25 and dropped to 1891 from his previous 1910.
Co-champion Roberto Hernandez gained 43 rating points after recovering from a dismal 1-3 win-loss start by winning 16 consecutive games and now trailing Manuel by just 2 rating points.
Cabunagan finally had an international rating of 1863! He's the only player with just a single loss (to co-employee at PPUC Jose Celiz) and defeated 4 FIDE rated players (Hernandez, Suringa, Bernard Garcia and Elpidio Manaligod). He drew his games with Montel, Gene Pastrana, Manuel and Edwin Acuyan.
THE SURPRISE OF THE YEAR is the 127 points gained by Pax, the most by any Palau chess players!!! The ever-ready Pax played all available players in his free time. He lost 4 games, drew 3 and won 13 to improve his 1602 rating to an incredible 1729 and dislodged Pastrana at No. 5. He's now the top candidate for "Comeback Player Of The Year".
Meanwhile, the player who lost most rating points is Pastrana --52. He's now at No. 6 with 1702 from his previous 1754. He lost 7 games, drew 2 and won 11 games.
Surprisingly, Gonzalo 'Jojo' Escapatoria, Jr. (1689) and Celiz (1687) took 7th and 8th place respectively with a solid play by beating co-champion Montel and Cabunagan.
Bernard Garcia gained the 3rd most rating points of 32--from 1629 to 1661 but it's good enough only at 9th spot while the final 10th spot was occupied by Manuel 'Jun' Mahor, who didn't participate in the 2011 PNCC, with 1646.
Dennis Gonzales is in solo 11th spot with his new rating of 1611 followed by 2011 Rapid Chess Champion of PRR Ferdinand 'Bong' Gutierrez with 1567. At No. 13 is Palau top woman chess player Angie Parrado at 1551 followed by PRR's Rudel Roxas with 1530 while Jeff Balbalosa and Mohammad Manik Hossain are tied at 15th spot with identical rating of 1528.
Elpidio Manaligod lost 24 rating points and now tied with Jeffrey Negrillo of PRR also at 17th place with the same rating of 1516. Edwin Acuyan is in solo 19th place (the same number he had at 2011 PNCC) with 1480.
The youngest participant, 11-year old George Anzawa will now be listed as a Palau player with 1398 rating. And lastly, Karen Lee had the lowest rating among the 21 players in the FIDE list at 1250.
Some minor mistakes were noticed by Hernandez --the spelling of the surname of Edwin Acuyan is listed as Acayun; no year of birth to Celiz (1973), Anzawa (2000), Acuyan (1971) and Karen Lee (1977); the year of birth of Jeff Balbalosa is still 1971 despite the correction to it as 1979 and his full name Jeffrey is also not corrected; also the non-appearance of the name Ann Acebron and the inclusion of Mahor although he didn't participate in the 2011 PNCC.
Letters of invitation to participate in the 3rd Palau Invitational Chess Championship has been sent to FIDE Master Christopher Castellano, USA and Philippines Master Almario Marlon Bernardino, FIDE Arbiter Dr. Alfredo Paez and his wife, International Arbiter (IA) Erwin Carag, Papua New Guinea's Joselito Marcos, his wife and daughter, Jamie Kenmure of Australia and another Australian (male or female).
It will be held at Palau Royal Resort on December 14-22, 2011. Dr. Paez and his wife are expected to check-in at PRR so that the Conference Room or Ming's Court can be used as venue for the event. Other invited participants are requesting Hernandez to look for a house/apartment/motel to stay for cheaper accommodation.
The local players who will be facing them are Montel, Jr., Manuel, Hernandez, Cabunagan, Garcia, Gonzales and Hossain. Manuel suggested Angie Parrado to replace Hossain and the latter to be the reserve in case one of the local players withdrew.
This is to give Angie more exposures to higher rated players as preparation for her inclusion in the Palau Women's Team to 2012 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.
Oceania Chess Confederation (OCC) President Mr. Brian Jones of Australia has suggested to Hernandez about inviting players from Guam to participate in the 3rd PICC. Hernandez emailed Mr. Leon Ryan inviting a player or two from Guam to participate since there is an everyday flight of Continental Airlines from Guam to Palau and Guam has been accepted recently as full member of FIDE. A minor adjustment will be made in case Guam will send a player or two--for chess and leisure.
Source: Chess mate by Robert Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 9-10
Vol. 20
Issue 46
November 07, 2011
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