Lapu Lapu Chess: 2k13 Lapu-Lapu Chess Championships: THE FULL REPORT

The Lapu-Lapu Fiesta Tournament was held on November 16-17, at the newly opened Super Metro Opon. This time, the sponsor was the chess association, MICSA. The tournament format was a 5 round-Swiss in the Open Category, while a grueling 7 round-Swiss was assigned to the Kiddies Category. Time controls given were 15 minutes for each player.

OPEN CATEGORY
Negros chess talent, Brylle John Arellano dominated the recent "Lapu Lapu Chess Fiesta" held at Super Metro Opon, Lapu-Lapu City. Arellano crushed the rising teenage chess star, Allan Pason in the last round, garnering a total of 5/5 points to take the championship crown. He was a clear point ahead of Henry Infante and Guy Chessman. Infante took the second place as he had the better tiebreaks over Chessman. So, Guy Chessman was third. Allan Pason only managed to gain 4th place as he was beaten by Arellano and was held to a draw by a strong yet unknown player. Meanwhile Mark "The Big Mouth" Cimafranca took 5th. Cimafranca is famously known in our chess club for his very talkative mouth but most importantly, his crushing victory over NM Rustum Tolentino in a 25-move brilliancy miniature, a long time ago.

Brylle John Arellano, the newly crowned Lapu-Lapu city champion

Lapu-Lapu's teenage chess talent, Allan Pason took part in the Open category (!)
Sadly, he was beaten by Arellano and had to settle for 4th place.
Allan Pason is also notoriously known as Kyle Sevillano's
immortal nemesis.

Cebu's "Chinese GM", Peterson Sia, watches closely a game
between Lapu-Lapu players...

Last year's champion, Ademar Toledo, was not able to regain his title,
as he was severely beaten and demoralised by...

Henry Infante, who ultimately clinched 2nd place in the event.

Chess patron, Jun Olis, visits the event and plays a game with one of
Lapu-Lapu's famous local hustlers...

Rolando "Lando" Torres
(1 d4 c5!?)

Asides from the cash prizes, trophies were given to the 1st to 3rd placers in the Open category.
Trophies were also given in the Kiddies Category bu t unfortunately,
I forgot to take some photos out of them :(

And well, behind these trophies was the arbiter of the event.
He also is one of the most famous arbiters in the Visayas...

Felix Poloyapoy
A.K.A. "NM Polyapov"

Best friend Edgar Tampus with official sponsor, Cobra. Hehe...

KIDDIES CATEGORY
The virtually unknown, Sidi Linus Abugan swept the kiddies category with a phenomenal 7/7 points! His closest rivals, the Velarde brothers (Jerish and Jerele), only managed to collect 5.5 points each, since their dreams to become Lapu-Lapu Kiddies Champ was disrupted by Lyan Portes and John Lester Belano. Unfortunately, Belano was not able to continue his winning streak (5 points since rounds 1 to 5), as he faltered in the 6th and 7th round.
Here's the list of the kids who made it to the top 5: