Barangay Wesley Christmas Party 2009 Inter-Club chess tournament

Members of the Meralco Chess Club, Philippine PARA Team, and Barangay Wesley converged last Saturday, December 12, in Meralco to celebrate the 1st Barangay Wesley Christmas Party Inter-Club chess tournament.

Using a five-board, double round-robin format, the tournament was held as a fund-raising activity for the benefit of the country's PARA Team members - all done for the the spirit of brotherhood and charity.

After a total of six rounds with 20-25 minutes allotted to each player per game (20 minutes for non-PARA players and 25 for PARA players), the Barangay Wesley Team A emerged overall champion with 18 points, followed by Meralco (15 points) Barangay Wesley Team B (14 points) and RP PARA Team (13 points).

Team Composition

Barangay Wesley Team A (Champion)

Nanobrain
Rusticbull
Fab11mt
Sheriff Arnold
Rey

MERALCO (2nd place)

Rolly Sol Cruz
Jay Dicen
Jonas Santiago
Ronald Rodriquez
Darryl
Jonathan Rivera

Barangay Wesley Team B (3rd place)

Pulsar
Jpsacristan
Spawn2
Epistle
Wordfunph

RP PARA Team (4th place)

Alexis
Francis
Canonigo
Abe
Sarmiento
Melchor

Indeed, it was fun and a blessed affair. We hope that we somehow made the members and families of the RP PARA Team feel the spirit of Christmas.









































NANOBRAIN, a generous sponsor/member of Barangay Wesley, wrote the perfect account of the whole activities.

He flawlessly put to life what transpired last Saturday, which made me post here his kibitzes at chessgames.com, the real home of Barangay Wesley.

Let's listen to Nanobrain (with minimal editing):

"December 12, 2009 at around 8:00 am, I was already at the Quezon City Hall to pick up two new neophytes applying for membership, , a Court Sheriff at Quezon City, and , a Clerk at the Metropolitan Trial Court of the same city. Rey's wife tagged along, to make sure her husband will be safe during our rigid initiation rites.

"It was past 9 am already when we arrived at the Meralco compound at the Ortigas Center, Pasig City. I've been holding office in that area for many years already but it was my first time to go inside the compound and inside the Meralco Building, the most imposing building in that area.

"The playing hall was actually a vast dining area of a canteen at the basement of the building. Bright, air-conditioned, relatively quiet, with hot, delicious, cheap food always available at the canteen. Among the first I met was . I heard he's about my age but he looked younger by many years as he's boyish-looking and physically fit. His fanaticism about the game is, I think, equal with that of guys like Timhortons, Wordfunph and Sugardom. Fab11mt was armed to the teeth. He had his laptop, camera, chess materials and a gun [for defensive purposes only, in case someone tries to rob him of his precious possessions] inside his big black bag. He wore a t-shirt with the logo of a recent tournament in the U.S. He showed us pictures of Wesley playing in the recent Spice Cup tournament and regaled us with chizmiz about the Spice Cup, which I can't write here as he swore us to secrecy before he shared them with us. He also told us about his long conversations with William So while they had a long drive in the U.S.

"There were four teams with five players and five boards in each of the six rounds. The teams played against each other twice: BW Teams A and B, the Meralco Team and the PARA Team composed of the blind, the partially-blind, those who pretend to be blind and a very friendly guy in a wheelchair.

"As fab11mt had already pointed our, his/our Team A [us two, Rusticbull, Rey and Sheriff Arnold] was the top scorer. This was strange to me when I first heard it because I was a witness as to how the Meralco Team clobbered us twice, the last one even an almost shut-out: 4-1 with rusticbull being the lone survivor of the carnage. Both my two losses were with black pieces against Meralco players, and both with my pet Scandinavian!

"Strangely, however, BW Team B always avenged our losses and, I suppose, by the same lopsided scores! Then, I thought of treating Team B to lunch so they couldn't find the nerve to win against us. During the two rounds our team met them over the board, the Team B players were like meek lambs being led to slaughter. I didn't see the other games but in my own, Pulsar didn't castle so I happily pinioned his king to death in its original square, while JPsacristan, in our game, blundered away his rook [on purpose, I suspect].

"Strange, too, was my game with a "blind" PARA player. We even had to use his special chess set/board [the one with holes in them], and he got 25 minutes to my 20 minutes because he was "blind"]. And he really looked blind because his outer eyes looked as if the pair had no eyeballs inside. I even offered him that I can vocalize my moves but he refused. During the game, however, he was not feeling the pieces with his hand. I make a move, he thinks for a while, then he makes his move, holding the intended piece with precision although I notice that he seemed to have difficulty inserting the pieces into the holes. I thought he somehow the pieces I make my moves with. Later, I came to learn that he really can see the board and the pieces. Some BW players told me he was only "partially" blind.

"After the games, we gave the PARA players 1k each [coming from the contributions of the 4 teams] and we said our goodbyes and exchanged our final greetings.

"Off we [the BW team members, except fab11mt who was fetched by his wife--proving that even if he love chess greatly, he loves his wife even more] went to Kapmigz's palace at Pasay City where the already tipsy [who didn't go to Meralco] awaited us.

"For those of you who have not seen it, let me describe to you Kapmigz's place. First, it's in a secluded area of the city. To find it, you have to know where the Chinese Temple is. Then before you can get inside, there's a labyrinth, then a very tall steel gate, like the one you see in the movies before you enter Dracula's castle. Inside kapmigz's 3-storey shindig was His Eminence, Kapmigz himself, surrounded by . . . He lives there by himself, with his loyal page from Bohol.

"And food and drinks galore! Angelofdeath was practically drinking an entire bottle of Chivas Regal with a straw! Giant prawns with a piece as big as a plate! Grilled arowanas! You know how much an arowana costs? A small one can fetch the price of several thousands of pesos already. And they are usually only for decorative/aquarium pieces only. But what kapmigz grilled for us were as huge as Jennifer Lopez's buttocks. And they were as delicious!

"Only I, spawn, Rey and the sheriff [a law enforcer so no hanky-panky for him] were well-behaved. We had our eyes only on our blitz games, our ears deadened by kapmigz's favorites songs, played in full volume, like by Lady Gaga.

"To those who could have attended but didn't, 'twas a BLUNDER you'll regret for the rest of your lives. Don't make the same mistake next year."