(1027) ROUND 3, 4 OF 2015 PALAU RAPID CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP July 26, 2015 at Bethlehem Park)

NO PHOTOS OF THE 3RD ROUND...
    This is the 2nd shot of the 4th round as everybody forgot to take photo of the first round. At left is Dennis Gonzales vs. Manuel Mahor, Jr. while on the 2nd board, John Mark Tamayo won by default over Edmond Barayuga, who is the only Open player to be absent. Next board, Arnolfo Inres vs. Eugene Labarda and CM Bernardo Garcia vs. Nilo de Jesus. All present players with the white pieces won.                                                      (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

Christopher Kitalong, left, agreed to join this tourney with a 0-2 win-loss start to complete the list of players in even numbers. The no. 17 player is Josef Karlo Moyet, 2nd from left. He is supposed to have a bye on the 3rd round for a whole point. But he defeated Kitalong for a well-deserved whole point. In this 4th round game against Glen Navarroza, right, Kitalong lost again due to rustiness. Sofronio 'Pons' Mahor, 2nd from right, scored his 2nd victory for 12th spot among 18 players. Navarroza and Moyet have 1 point apiece.

At Board 1, top seed Cyril Montel, Jr. overcome a 2-pawn deficit to outwit Roberto Hernandez in 54 moves of Reti Opening (New York and Capablanca System).

It's a first time in 13 years that Roberto opened with 1. Nf3 against Cyril. It took him 2 minutes to reply with 1. ... d5 and after 8 moves, Roberto is ahead by a pawn after the exchanges of queens.

Hernandez won another pawn on the 17th move but overlooked the best defense on his 26th move... Rf2 which was suggested by Gonzalo Escapatoria, Jr. after the game.

Instead, Roberto moved 26. g4 and lost the exchange (a knight for a rook). It's still a drawn game potentially but Roberto handled the endgame poorly to lose with still 4 minutes and 40 seconds left in his clock to Cyril's 5:13.

As usual and almost at all rapid chess tournaments in Palau, only Roberto is writing chess notations. In the 2005-2006 Palau Rapid Chess Championship, Roberto was able to write 42 of his 58 games in the most hectic rapid chess tourney in Palau -- a double round-robin of 29 players!

The only game that he didn't finish writing was his game against Jose Omega. The others are 15 default wins on the penultimate and final round.

Roberto has great admiration to the most fair and very good sportsmanlike conduct of 3-time Palau champion Eddie Grefiel. In the 2004 Rapid Chess Tournament held from October 24-December 19, Roberto is again the only one writing chess notations despite the 30-minute time control for each player to finish the game.

When they played their game on November 14, Eddie also write chess notations when he saw that Roberto is writing the moves. He asked for a score sheet and said, "It would not be fair if you're the only one writing chess notations so I will write also."

Nowadays, no players in Palau has this same kind of fairness mentality. They see a good 'advantage' if their attention is not divided by writing chess notations during rapid games.

The 2013 Palau Rapid Chess Championship is another event that only Roberto is writing his and his opponents moves. It is divided into Class A and Class B, Women and Junior. The Class A and B's top 4 will have a semi-final and the finalist of Class A will face the Class B finalist for the title.

Roberto was able to write the notations of his regular game vs. Jeff Balbalosa, his semi-final game against co-employee at Palau Royal Resort Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr. and the final game against Tito Cabunagan, in which he prepared a score sheet for both of them.

In the semi-final of Cyril Montel, Jr. vs. Tito Cabunagan, both of them were given score sheet but they refused to write chess notations. Since Roberto is watching the game, he wrote their moves to have a record of at least 4 games that the future generation of Palau chess players can devour. Tito won to set the final match against Roberto on April 28, 2013 at 2pm at Bethlehem Park.

This is a golden opportunity to test Tito's fairness and sportsmanlike conduct. Roberto said to him, "This is the 2013 Rapid Chess finals, let's write our moves." Tito is fair enough to accept the score sheet and a very good final rapid chess game was recorded...

   [Event "2013 PLW Rapid Chess Ch."]
[Site "Bethlehem Park Koror City, Palau"]
[Date "2013.04.28"]
[Round "12"]
[White "Hernandez, Roberto"]
[Black "Cabunagan, Tito"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A03"]
[WhiteElo "1850"]
[BlackElo "1824"]
[PlyCount "79"]

1. f4 d5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. e3 Bg4 4. Bb5 Qd6 5. O-O O-O-O 6. c4 dxc4 7. Bxc4 Nh6 8.
Nc3 e5 9. d3 Na5 10. fxe5 Bxf3 11. Qxf3 Qxe5 12. d4 Qg5 13. Bxf7 Bd6 14. e4 Qh4
15. g3 Qe7 16. Bxh6 gxh6 17. Qf5+ Kb8 18. Qxa5 Bb4 19. Qe5 Qd7 20. Nd5 Bd6 21.
Qe6 Qa4 22. Rfd1 Rhf8 23. e5 Bb4 24. b3 Qa5 25. Nxb4 Qxb4 26. Qc4 Qe7 27. Rf1
Qg5 28. Rf4 h5 29. Rc1 c6 30. Re1 h4 31. Rxh4 Qd2 32. Rhe4 h5 33. e6 b5 34.
Qxc6 Rxd4 35. Qxb5+ Ka8 36. Qc5 Rxe4 37. Rxe4 Qd1+ 38. Kg2 Qd2+ 39. Kh3 Rxf7
40. Qc8# 1-0

Thus, Roberto is the defending Rapid Chess Champion because there is no 2014 Rapid Chess Championship.

The ongoing 2015 Palau Rapid Chess Championship is a test to players' fair play and good sportsmanlike conduct as shown by Eddie and Tito.
     WHO WILL FOLLOW THEIR GOOD EXAMPLE?
     Anybody fair enough even when they are playing against Roberto only?
   
 

Source: The History of Chess in Palau
             By Roberto Hernandez
             June 09, 2002 -- July 26, 2015
             To be published as a book in the future