LOSING 6 games out of 7 matches is not consistency to 6th seed Jimmy Valenzuela. But on the 11th round of the 2005 Open Chess Tournament held on Sunday, August 7, he came from behind in games against Eric Espartero and Mario Ramos to beat the two in lucky fashion.
His game against Espartero was put on hold when the latter has to go to the airport and left the position on the 26th move.
Then Ramos came and play with Valenzuela while waiting for Espartero to come back. Valenzuela lost his queen in the middle game. Many observers thought that he will lose his 7th straight but he managed to attack Ramos' weaknesses at the back rank and recovered the queen and the initiative. Ramos tried to salvage his game with a draw by stalemate but his unopposed pawn gave him the extra move that cost him half point.
Espartero came back while they are in the middle of their game. When they resume the game, Valenzuela opted to stop writing his moves and was in passive position when Espartero blundered away his bishop and resigned facing mate in two moves.
Espartero had 3 pawns, a bishop and a rook against Valenzuela's 2 rooks. In master's game, that advantage is good enough to convert into a win but many amateurs play fast in the endgame that several winning games were lost due to endgame tactics weaknesses.
With 2 victories of the day, Valenzuela climbed from 13th spot to 8th place in the tournament sponsored by Bendix N. Lakobong, Leo Lacambra, Jr. and Roswell C. Macapagal of T-Shirt Printing Atbp. and held at Privilege Family Store in Malakal.
Lacambra came back already from vacation and he brought the 6 trophies for the top 5 finishers and for the Most Improved Player (MIP).
And speaking of MIP, top contender Manuel Nedic demolished Ivan II Chess Computer in 53 moves of Modern Defence to tie idle Jose Omega at the top of the standings with 6-2-0 win-loss-draw slate. Omega had a 6-1-0 card after losing for the first time last week to Espartero.
Second seed Cyril Montel, Jr. survived a tremendous attack from Gene Pastrana to win in 26 moves of Bird's Opening. Montel, Jr. (5-1-0) moved closer to the leaders and continued his quest for a first title in 9 tournaments. Espartero and idle top seed Roberto Hernandez were tied at 6th spot with an identical record of 4-4-1.
Another blitz chess contest was held after the completion of all regular games. This time, 8 players participated:
Menandro Manuel, Bong Alipoon, Hernandez, Valenzuela, Lin de Guzman, Montel, Jr., Pastrana, and Nedic.
Hernandez won his first 4 games when he received a phone call from work asking him to come as customers were waiting for him. It's supposed to be his day off that day. He lost his last 3 games and left the site with the last 2 crucial games still to be played between Alipoon and Valenzuela, and de Guzman against Manuel.
If Valenzuela would win, and Manuel would lose to de Guzman, Valenzuela would be the champion. If Manuel and Valenzuela would both win, they will decide to play one game to decide the issue or just split the cash prize. Half of the prizes were already spent on drinks of all participants.
Solution to last week's puzzle: (We are sorry for the mistake. The first puzzle should have been the 2nd puzzle.)
1. ...h5+ 2. Kg4 f5+!! (forced, but now Black's rook is no longer pinned) 3. ...Rg2 mate.
Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 9-10
Volume 14
Issue 32
August 12-19, 2005
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