STARTING this weekend, players who don't show up to play their remaining games will lose by default.
This was decided by the organizers to finish the current rapid chess tournament within 3 weeks so that another tournament can start.
If both players are absent, it will be declared default draw.
Joven delos Santos will leave Palau for good this week and all his remaining games will be default victories to his opponents.
Danny Dandoy and Dennis Gonzales are the other two players who played the least games. So far Koror State Legal Counsel Craig Dittrich had a few games left to play.
Newcomer Andres 'Aying' Mestizo II played 2 games on Friday evening, January 18 against venue host Gene Pastrana and lost both games.
Two games were played on Saturday, January 19 -- the 2nd round match between blitz chess specialist Tony Villa and 4th seed Roberto Hernandez that proved to be the turning point of another chess title for Villa, who prevailed in their Sicilian Defence (Najdorf Variation) encounter.
And in their 2nd round game also, 3rd seed Cyril Montel, Jr. missed 2 chances to maintain his whole piece advantage and almost lost by time forfeit in a drawn endgame against Hernandez.
With no chances for a win because he only got a knight and a king, Montel, Jr. managed to capture the lone pawn of Hernandez to draw the game with only a few seconds remaining on his time clock.
On Sunday evening, Hernandez extracted 2 whole points from co-employee Dennis Lara in their King's Gambit Declined and Dutch Defence encounters.
In their first game, Hernandez sacrificed a whole bishop on the 7th move which Lara declined but resulted in the trapping of his queen in exchange for a knight and a bishop. A series of simplification moves forced Lara to resign.
On February 17, Palau Royal Resort will hold its 2nd tournament with Class A and Class B division.
The top finishers of PRR rating chess tournament will form the Class A and beginners and lesser rated players will compete in the Class B division.
Mestizo and Dittrich might be invited to participate in Class A division. New cook Elizalde Madrinan will also be included in the Class A as he showed Class A performance in regular practices at Dormitory 1 of PRR.
Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr, might be the top seed in the Class B division while Brian Angala started practicing with Ivan II Chess Computer.
Romy Cayanan, a roommate of Hernandez, will also join the crowded and challenging Class B division.
Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Page 13
Volume 18
Issue 04
January 25-31, 2008 .
