Marinduque chess

I have not been blogging for a few days since my family arrived here in Marinduque, my beloved province, for our Christmas vacation.

Vacation, that is.

As they say, nothing beats like home. The environment here is totally different from that of Manila. The breeze, green fields, the people. I really love to be here. The truth is, whenever I set my feet here in this beautiful island, I no longer want to go back to Manila.

And how could I forget one thing that really makes me merry? Chess, haha. I may not be blogging for the past few days but I’m busy playing chess here in my province.

In fact, I helped co-organize a mini chess tournament here. Fortunately enough, I just scored 1.5 points and failed to advance to the cross-over semi-final round. My visitor from Manila, Angelo Comendador a.k.a Angelofdeath, who will forever cherish his best achievement in chess by beating GM Eugene Torre in a simul exhibition, was not able to strut his ‘powers’ here, scoring 1.0 point to go home early with me. Oh yes, chess players in Marinduque are highly competitive, you know.

I have a lot of chess messages in my Inbox but I really don’t have the luxury of time to post them here. But I’ll do when I finally get the chance. I savour every second of my vacation time here in Marinduque.

Back to our mini-chess tournament, which I hope to co-organize again when we spend our Christmas vacation in December 2010, God willing. Only if I live here in my province, I think I could contribute more in promoting chess activities here. I hope and pray for that possibility to happen someday.

And so, after the knock-out stage following the cross-over semi-final round, Florence Pastoral emerged the champion of the mini-tournament which didn’t have a title yet. I hope that next year, our mini-chess tournament will already have a billing, something like 1st Rusticbull Chess Tournament, haha.

Final rankings (8 players):

Champion: Florence Pastoral
1st Runner-up: Sherwin Red
2nd Runner-up: Antonio Vizarra
3rd Runner-up: Rommel Revilla
Resty Par (Rusticbull)
Angelo Comendador (Angelofdeath)
Jane Rioveros (PUP varsity player)
Rolly Pelobello