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:

1. ABUGAN, Sidi Linus
2. VELARDE, Jerele
3. PICONDO, Grant Daniel
4. VELARDE, Jerish
5. PORTES, Lyan

Sidi  Linus Abugan, the new Lapu-Lapu Kiddies Open Champion.

Here are some pics from the Kiddies category:

"Hmmm... I guess I'll just have to distract the opponent with my mole!"

The phenomenal Jerish  Dalde Velarde, fresh from his victory  from Thailand,
had to settle for 4th place as he was beaten by...

One of the surprise of the tournament, John Lester Belano,
who is supported by his gracious and loving father...

Ramil Belano

                             

 Brgy. Councilor, Galileo Roma, the man behind all of this and of 

course, to our local government of Lapu Lapu ;)

CARLSEN SCORES! /LAPU-LAPU TEAM TOURNAMENT TOMMOROW

World #1 Magnus Carlsen before the start of Game 5 at the ongoing World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is nearly halfway over, with the World's number one chess player snatching a full point in Game 5 from Vishy Anand, the reigning World Champion. 

UP-FRONT NOTICE: For the sake of necessary accuracy, I will be a little technical in the words I use today to give a complete and unbiased review of Game 5 of the World Chess Championship. Don't worry, this will be very quick.

In what seemed to be a drawish rook ending, the World Champion, Vishy Anand made a seemingly innocent and subtle error on move 45. In the actual game, Anand (Black), opted for 45...Rc1, giving Carlsen (White) the chance to play the easy 46 Kb2!, which forces Black to obey White's King and play 46...Rg1 instead. 

After 46...Rg1, the position was still drawable, but not anymore easy! Let's just say that a dead drawn game is easier to play than a drawish game with a slight advantage on one side. 

After the move 46...Rg1, Anand must have started to feel that frustrating and sinking feeling when it seemed to him that his position was slowly crumbling. I'm not saying that Anand was losing outright after that move, I'm just saying that it's already hard to play such position after such move. 

Looking back on move 45, in light of Black's difficulties, Black's "only" response was to play the "wais" 45... Ra1. This has the merit of making White's tempo gainer, 46 Kb2 impossible to play owing to 46...Ra2+, skewering the White king and his important g-pawn. When I checked the computer to make sure that 45...Ra1 was really a draw, a staggering eval of =0.00 was screaming throughout my monitor.

Anyways, a good game for Carlsen and good luck to Anand on the next game! 

LAPU-LAPU FIESTA TEAM TOURNAMENT
Good news for the locals of my club in Lapu Lapu! The annual Chess festival in Lapu-Lapu will kick off tomorrow! :) It will be a team tournament, with members of each team from Lapu-Lapu City only. The event starts at 10am, at the newly opened Gaisano Opon. The tournament is sponsored by the Lapu-Lapu City Government and Hon. Harry Radaza. Special thanks to one of our local chess patrons, Galileo Roma for the efforts! :)

Cebu's Roger Abella Memorial Tournament and the LRT Caloocan Mall Tournament

The late (but great) National Master, Roger Abella will finally have his own memorial tournament this Saturday, 1pm, at Cebu's famous Elizabeth Mall. The tournament is said to be of low budget though, so only players from Cebu are expected to come (forgive me for my racism :-P) Anyways, I think that the P6,000 prize for 1st place is very tempting for a lot of locals here in Cebu!

Anyone who is interested about this event, can simply google this page's title and find out more ;)

CLUB MATCH--

The Lapu Lapu Chess Club will battle it out against the CEPCA Chess Club on the first week of August in Cebu City. The organizer will be the proud chess enthusiast, Jun Olis. Sponsors are most likely to come from CEPCA. I hope sir Jun will provide me the names of the sponsors so that I can post them here! Anyways, snacks and small prizes will be given away for both teams. 15 players are only allowed to play for each team. Time controls? Well it's the Good ole' fashioned "long game"!

Hehe.

DEEP CONDOLENCES--

I would also like to extend my condolences to the friends and family of the young yet unfortunately now passed away, chess player James Uy of Cebu. James, you will be dearly missed.

LRT CALOOCAN MALL TOURNEY

By the way, there's a tournament  at the Caloocan NorthMall, this August 17 :) Anyone around the area can join the event and hopefully, those who join might earn some few bucks at day's end :)

Gatz Luz will be the Chief Arbiter for the event, while Noel Morales will act as TD (tournament director).

Here's a poster for details:

For More Info/Details please CALL/TEXT

Tournament Director CA Noel C. Morales

709-06-86 / 09098878395

posted from Bloggeroid

P100k Engr. Blas Hipulan Tournament Begins

THE 100k PESOS CHESS TOURNAMENT swiftly became an exciting event yesterday, at SM City Cebu. Sponsored by one of Cebu chess' notable sponsors, Engr. Blas Hipulan, the tournament attracted a lot of strong chess masters  in the Philippines, like IMs Oliver Dimakiling, Immanuel Emperado, and Cebu's 2nd Grandmaster, Richard Bitoon. Other notable players there were NMs Rusum Tolentino and Nelson Villanueva.

NM Nelson Villanueva (De La Salle chess coach)

In round 1, high-schooler Jethro Claro beat NM Merben Roque while another high-schooler, Daniel Lorenzo Minoza beat a +2300 player! Woww!! What a major upset in the first round! 

To get a full glimpse of the participants of this tournament, I decided to upload the starting rank list of the players:

Take note that both seeded No. 9 and No. 10 are actually FIDE Masters! While seeded #17-20 and #23 are NMs. Maybe they simply didn't want to brag about their titles?? Hmmm...  Moreover, we see the notable Marvin Ting at #44. Marvin Ting by the way, had just won the Challengers Cup at Bangkok last May. So I think he is one player that should not be taken lightly :)

Here's a photo I've taken from the lone GM participant in in the event:

GM Bitoon: "I will crush you all..."

...and here's a list of the PRIZES and MECHANICS of the event:

Remember that high-schooler I mentioned, who beat NM Roque? Well here's a pic of him.

Jethro Claro

No wonder he beat NM Merben Roque, because he has another set of eyes! (It's the eyeglasses, hehehe)

The pride of Silay City, Negros. Can you name him? Clue: He's an FM with initials S.S...

The forever interesting and eccentric NM of Cebu: Cyril Ortega (Although I must argue that the most interesting NM in the Philippines is no other than the half-crazy idiotic-genius, Victor Lluch! (Yes, you can google his name :)

    A pride of Cebu, Richard Natividad (2289)

To get the full results for the rest of the event, just click here. 
By the way, I'd like to also share an update on the Pinoy Chess Club Online Tournment (Ladies Edition!) >>>

for more details, you can look up Noel Morales @ Facebook.

  

© 2013 by Kraig Quinain

Pinoy Chess Club Online

     Pinoy woodpushers who are extremely fond of "facebooking" (that's what kids call it nowadays;) are perhaps familiar with the facebook page, Pinoy Chess Club Online. The page is exclusive to our beloved Filipino netizens and offers some daily puzzles, camaraderie (chess camaraderie that is.), and regular small prized tournaments, with 1k for the champion online. The page was started by a naive chess arbiter back then, Noel Morales who has now become one of the most familiar chess arbiters in the Philippines (the internet has its own way of making people known) Since then, the page has gained several members from Grandmasters, to local hustlers at your chess club. There are some masters who play in the blitz tournaments organized by the page despite the meager 1k prize. Chess masters Sander Severino and Rolzon Roullo are among its regular participants. Here is a poster of their just concluded "small money" blitz tournaments.

     As you can see in the poster, the champion gets a humble one thousand pesos. The second placer gets 500php, and the 3rd to 5th placers all get cellphone loads. The time controls are extremely fast, with only 2 minutes for each player (not recommended for those who prefer "real blitz" with 5 minutes on the clock). The registration is free, making a lot of chess enthusiasts eager to join. The downside though in these tournaments, are its small prizes, which doesn't get  much attention towards very strong players like GM's and NM's. And why am I saying this? It's because I think it is good for a tournament to have some masters playing in it so that, whenever amateurs lose to them, at least we would gain some experience There are a few of them though, who participate only every once in a while... but hey, the tournaments are free!

Note: You have to get used to though, in playing on the free chess website Chess.com as all the games would be played there.

     To those of you who are interested to  join the club's facebook group page, the group can be easily searched on facebook (!).

      To get a feel of exactly the density of players immersed in these tournaments, here's a "standings list" in one of those tournaments at Pinoy Chess Club Online:

click to enlarge

Congratulations and more power to Pinoy Chess Club Online :)

Copyright 2013 Kraig Quinain

IM Yap wins Mayor's Cup

FACE TO FACE

USJ-R varsity player, Mike Pagaran (left) kibitzes with UV coach and national master,
Rommel Ganzon in a post-mortem.

YOUR MOVE
NM Rogelio Enriquez

International Master Kim Yap won the Manadue Mayor's Cup last Sunday, and got home 10,000 pesos richer! ;) The Cebuano IM scored an UNDEFEATED 8.5 points after 9 rounds. His only draw was conceded to FM Anthony Makinano. Meanwhile, Makinano got second place along with Carlos Moreno III, another very solid player in Cebu. Makinano had a chance to share 1st place with the IM, but was expunged by Bacolod immigrant, Edsel Montoya. Montoya, by the way, is a very known player in his hometown Bacolod, and was a Shell Youth Chess champion there. Another incredidle playuer in the field was Cebuano child prodigy Rhenzi Khylle Sevillano, impressively finished around the 6th-12th places despite VERY VERY tough competition. I think he is the kid who also won the Shell Youth Chess Grand Finals last year! I would also like to mention, Lemuel Montero, an ex-Lapu Lapu player who now lives in Mandaue, actually finished among the top 20 placers too!. Montero was clearly in form when he vanquished NM Leo Alidani during the first day of the event. But Montero said he was just "lucky" because he didn't have enough sleep before the tournament. Whoa! Maybe he was just joking ;)

Anyways, Marc Alunan, a respectable chess veteran who is quite familiar to many old timers (no offense sirs ;) in Cebu, finished 4th place. I think he's the one who played a Petrov Defence against me some time ago! Meanwhile, Edsel Montoya came in 5th (!).

GM KILLER(hehe.)
Carlos Moreno III

Anyways, for those of you interested to know the "others" who fared well enough to be in the top 20, here is a list of the 7th-20th place finishers in respective order :) The list includes some NMs, Hustlers, Varsity players and even "gun for hires" hehe ;)

Erwin Ababat

NM Rommel Ganzon

NM Merben Roque

Rex Cabuncal 

Rhenzi Kylle Sevillano

Diego Claro 

Felix Shaun Balbona, 

NM Rogelio Enriquez, 

Lemuel Montero, 

Venancio Loyola, 

Shawn Patrick Osorno, 

Carlito Flores, 

Bryle Arellano

King James Torres

WEH?

Veteran Lapu-Lapu woodpusher, Aldwin Daculan faces Diego Claro with the White pieces

Kadaugan sa Mactan Chess Tournament

Civilians perform a simulation of the historic Battle of Mactan

The "Kadaugan sa Mactan" Closed Tournament will be held at Barangay Pajo near PLDT, on April 26-27, 2013. Registration fee for interested participants is only 70php each. The Closed tournament will showcase a blitz side event (5 minutes time controls) during the first day, with tentative 7 rounds. The main event will take place on the 27th, with rapid time controls (30 mins). The tournament is sponsored by the Lapu Lapu City Government, with the spearheaded efforts of Antonio Ycong. NOTE: Open to Mactan island residents only.