Break

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Best Sacrifice

I've been thinking of how chess is related to Christmas.

Then I thought of SACRIFICE.

John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Every time we commit a sacrifice over the board, let us remind ourselves that Somebody made the real sacrifice that made each of us a winner.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Another Pinoy power in Malaysia

Just imagine that you're a 2164-rated player and you're up against a Russian GM who has a rating of 2636? To make the situation more fearsome, you're commanding the Black army!

Would you scratch your head? Tremble in fear? Or stand your ground like one of the 300 Warriors who knew no defeat?

If we're to ask the young lad John Ranel Morazo (in yellow shirt, with participants from other countries), perhaps his answer would be the last one - he bravely stood his ground and held a raging giant to a standstill.

Yes, Morazo (2164) just did a remarkable show of mental tenacity by halving a point against topseed Russian GM PavelMaletin (2636) - a gap of more than 500 Elo points - in the just concluded 2010 Grand Asian Chess Championship (Men) that was held in Malaysia.

Morazo scored 6.5 points to finish 5th overall and to lead the Philippine campaign in this international event which saw the participation of 110 players from 11 countries.

Notably, Morazo finished the competition even ahead of Iranian GM Bagheri Amir (2429) who ranked 6th overall.

Six Pinoys participated in this tournament, three of whom landed in the Top 10!

Top 10 finishers (Total of 110 players)

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	IM	Darban Morteza	IRI	2305	8,0	52,5	45,75
2		Nasri Amin	IRI	2253	7,5	52,5	43,75
3	GM	Maletin Pavel	RUS	2636	7,0	54,5	40,00
4	FM	Dzhumagaliev Yan	RUS	2360	7,0	54,5	39,00
5		Morazo John Ranel	PHI	2164	6,5	54,5	36,00
6	GM	Bagheri Amir	IRI	2429	6,5	52,5	35,75
7		Alahakoon Isuru	SRI	1923	6,5	52,0	35,50
8		Nebato Sheider	PHI	2180	6,5	49,0	32,25
9		Crivoi Alexandr	MDA	0	6,0	50,5	32,00
10		Arroyo Christian	PHI	2294	6,0	49,5	32,25

Complete rankings HERE

2010 National Inter-Cities & Municipalities Rapid Chess Tournament results

The 2010 National Inter-Cities & Municipalities Rapid Chess Tournament - the grand finale of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) for its list of activities for 2010 - was held and concluded without much media hype and promotion.

It was a huge event, which I even deemed among, if not the most, major events the NCFP organized for the year. Yet the only thing the NCFP could do was to post the game results. The chess community wanted more, like posting the highlights of featured games and photos.

Am I too demanding? Probably yes. But all of us should be.

Just imagine the number of teams that participated. There were 43 of them, with at least four players in each team!

I congratulate the City of Dagupan for hosting such an event, which could have made an impact on the economic and tourism promotions of the city considering that the players came from different parts of the country. Well done, Dagupan! Well done!

As for the NCFP, as I said, they could have exerted more efforts to bring the tournament to the global chess community. They should maximize the use of their official website which they often "upgrade" for the supposedly"improved service" to the chess community.

Top 3 Teams (total of 43 teams):
Venue: People's Astrodome, Dagupan City
Date: December 18-19, 2010

Team-Composition with round-results

1. DLS-CSB-MANILA (RtgAvg:1986, TB1: 16 / TB2: 26)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games
1		Andador Rolando	2158	Phi	1	1	0	1	1	½	1	0	0	5,5	9
2		Pimentel Joel	1937	Phi	1	1	0	1	0	1	½	1	1	6,5	9
3		Bitoon Jimsoon	1967	Phi	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	8,0	9
4		Reyes Narquingel	1881	Phi	0	1	1	1	1	½	1	0	½	6,0	9
2. MAKATI-MMDA (RtgAvg:2048, TB1: 14 / TB2: 23)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games
1	GM	So Wesley	2497	Phi	1	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	½	8,0	9
2		Arguelles Efren	1977	Phi	½	1	1	½	½	0	½	½	0	4,5	9
3		Perez Adrian	1917	Phi	½	0	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	6,5	9
4		Gumila Narciso	1800	Phi	1	0	0	1	0	½	0	1	½	4,0	9
3. DON GALO PARAÑAQUE CITY (RtgAvg:2032, TB1: 14 / TB2: 22)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Pts.	Games
1		Elorta David	2175	Phi	0	0	1	½	0	1	1	1	0	4,5	9
2		Cantonjos Allan	2182	Phi	1	0	1	½	½	1	1	½	1	6,5	9
3		Reyes Narquingden	1882	Phi	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	6,0	9
4		Lumidao Mervin	1890	Phi	1	0	½	1	1	1	0	0	½	5,0	9

Complete team rankings HERE

Dream team? (part 2)

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, 20 December 2010)

The die was cast -- the "Dream Team" was to be captained by the president of the Philippine Chess Federation and also Southwestern University head Matias "Bombi" Aznar III, with Mr. Florencio Campomanes as head of the delegation.

Remember the 5 P’s -- Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. In 1974, our federation was very responsive to our needs.

Through the connections of Mr. Campomanes, the philanthropist Potenciano "Nanoy" Ilusorio, president of the Baguio Country Club, made available to the team his mansion near Mines View Park in Baguio City for a period of one month as training center. He also footed the bill for our expenses, even hiring a chef to properly attend to our culinary tastes. It was a beautiful place and afforded us an ideal venue for mental and physical preparation. Then the federation leased a cottage in La Union for one week to complete our conditioning.

IM Renato Naranja (in this 2008 photo, sourced from Flickr account of Ed Gaillard) had not played internationally since a good showing in the 1974 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal. Yes, this was the tournament which Bobby Fischer won 3.5 points ahead of second-placers Larsen and Geller, but it was also here when Nats took on the American Team single-handedly -- he defeated Reshevsky and Addison as well as had Fischer against the ropes.

Naranja, Renato -- Fischer, Robert James
[A35] Palma de Mallorca Interzonal (8), 19.11.1970 English Opening
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Flashback to the future -- Nats reminded me of the 1990 Manila Interzonals where I did not play well but against the Americans somehow I manage to defeat their delegation 2.5-0.5: wins against the reigning US Champion Stuart Rachels and Gata Kamsky, and a draw with Boris Gulko.

Anyway, Campo felt that Nat’s long absence from the board gave him the tendency of experimenting over the board and second-guessing his own moves, so Nats was sent to an international tournament in Nethanya to sharpen his reflexes.

One week before the start of the Olympiad the trio of Rudy Cardoso, Ramon Lontoc and Balinas went to Solingen, West Germany, to play double-round matches against a redoubtable team of grandmasters that included Robert Huebner, Ludek Pachmann, Hans Joachim Hecht and Alberic O’Kelly de Galway. After all, Lontoc, despite his long tournament chess career, had never played internationally and it was hoped that the event will throw off some of the stage fright that comes with the territory.

Glenn Bordonada and I went straight to the tournament site in Nice. As Campo later on recounted to me, he should have included Glenn in the warm-ups, as his opening round jitters cost us some valuable points later on. Once he warmed up though, Glenn became a madman with his queen sacrifices.

The Philippines was billeted at the Hotel Vendome on the corner of Rue Pastorelli and Rue Alberti. With us were the teams from Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia. Campo had something to say about the Asians being segregated from the other teams, but this was no problem for me. Indonesia and Hong Kong were captained by H.M. Hasan (an Indonesian with residence in Hong Kong), while Dr. Lim Kok Ann called the shots for Singapore, all of whom were no strangers to the Philippines. The Vendome therefore had a friendly and chummy atmosphere not present in the Hotel Frantel where most of the elite teams were quartered.

This sort of thing was important for a long-drawn tournament. You wouldn’t want to retire at night from an exhausting fight to a dark, unfriendly hotel. The two Meralco boys Naranja (Systems) and Bali (Legal) were also fellow-Negrenses, so they happily shared a room on the second floor. Rudy and Lontoc had their separate rooms, while Glenn and I bunked together on the ground floor, which also doubled as our conference and analysis rooms. Bombi Aznar was on the second floor, and Campo stayed in the fourth floor with Mr. Campomanes.

The games were played in the huge Palais des Expositions which had a synthetic floor called mateflex specially installed for players to pace around while waiting for their opponents to move. It was originally designed for all-year-round tennis but I found it to be easy on the feet. Don’t ask Nats or Bali about it, though -- I don’t think they even noticed the special flooring! Because of their habitual time pressure the two hardly ever got up from their seats in their games.

In the preliminaries we were assigned to Group 7, a rather hard one since there were five countries vying for the Finals Group A -- Bulgaria, Israel, France, Philippine and Indonesia. First place was conceded to Bulgaria, the other four will have to scramble for the remaining slot. There was no time for us to rest -- even though we were still jet-lagged and groggy from our respective long trips to the venue the quirks of the pairing system had assigned us against our three main rivals (France, then Indonesia, followed by Israel) for the second qualifying spot in the first three rounds!

Captain Aznar gave our "Dream Team" their marching orders -- top priority for the preliminary phase was to qualify for Group A. All title and norm aspirations have to be put on hold until we have fulfilled this goal, including fielding our "full force" team against unrateds.

The French team was an unknown quantity. Because they were the hosts much was expected of them, but when I asked Campo for some pointers he remarked that he did not know any of the players. This was a surprise for me -- for those of you who don’t know Campo, let me tell you that not knowing a player for him is rare, and not knowing all players from a certain team is unheard of. Even at this very early stage it was generally known that he was soon to become someone very important in FIDE -- he most certainly had all of the needed political skills.

Eight years later during the 1982 General Assembly Campo was elected President of FIDE. I would believe that a major factor for that was the campaign speech he made on the floor -- he actively courted the support of everybody of consequence in the General Assembly -- made eye contact with them, pronounced their names correctly, and addressed everybody in his own language. Really an awesome performance!

But I digress. I asked Campo why is it that he did not know anybody, and he replied that it seems the French had revamped their lineup and included young players for their team. Gone were the veterans Huguenot, Rossolimo, Bouteville and Muffang, and in their stead it was Macles, Todorcevic, Seret and Puhm who sat down to face the Philippines. We came away with a 2.5-1.5 victory, but it was not without some anxious moments.

The next day it was the Indonesians. After their long adjournments against the French, Nats and Bali were rested in favor of the two "rookies", Lontoc and Glenn. Both of them did not do so well, Lontoc ruined a winning game by moving at skittles pace. In the final position where they agreed a draw his opponent Suwuh was probably winning. Glenn lost badly due to his unfamiliarity with a new opening. He was previously a student of the Sicilian, but took up the Caro-Kann to solidify his style. This did not work against the razzle-dazzle of Monang Sinulingga. Rudy Cardoso and myself won and the Philippines had another 2.5-1.5 victory over a tough opponent.

Then it was the turn of the Israelis, and for me to face my first GM opponent, Vladimir Liberzon. Before Nice 1974 the Israeli colors were usually carried by Moshe Czerniak, Yosef Porath, Yair Kraidman and Shimon Kagan. However, 1974 saw a new trend, Soviet emigres started beefing up their team -- GM Vladimir Liberzon and IM Itchak Radashkovich were two very powerful additions. I knew I had my work cut out for me and indeed emerged from the opening with an inferior position, but with all the concentration I could muster managed to draw it.

Rudy Cardoso defeated Shimon Kagan on board 2, but Glenn Bordonada lost his second straight game, this time to Radashkovich who was in brilliant form. With 0/2 Glenn was benched for the remainder of the preliminaries, but anyway this gave him time to relax, do a bit of shopping and, a few days later, be fielded in the Finals with devastating effect.

We knew that Israel was disappointed to be held to a tie. However, 10 days later, when we started our giant-killing run, Shaul Hon, a Tel-Aviv journalist, had this to say in the Ma’Ariv daily: "the Philippine chess team is really a very strong team which deserves its place in Group A, and the Israel team is proud to have played a 2-all game encounter with them in the qualifying round."

Hey guys, would you like to read more about the Nice Olympiad? Let me know.

Pinay power in Malaysia

Pinay chess Olympian WFM Rulp Ylem Jose (2038), in photo, just did a superb show of Filipina power in the 2010 Grand Asian Chess Championship (Ladies) in Malaysia - finishing solo third overall and winning over Russian topseed WGM Vera Nebolsina (2377).

Remarkably, only this alluring Pinay dented the single loss of Nebolsina, the eventual champion with 8.0 points, in this international tournament. As an icing on the cake, Jose's win over the Russian topseed was impressive indeed - scaling up more than 300 Elo points separating them! Despite the huge Elo rating gap, the beautiful Pinay never showed any form of intimidation and went on to crush the Russian beauty with the heart of a lion.

Six Pinays joined this 50-player international event, with participants coming from six countries namely, Iran, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka.

Notably, five of the six Pinays who participated in this event landed in the Top 10! What a show of Pinay power indeed!!

Congratulations to all the Pinays who successfully waved the Philippine flag in this tournament.

Top 10 finishers (50 players)

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	WGM	Nebolsina Vera	RUS	2377	8,0	51,0	44,00
2	WIM	Kharashuta Ekaterina	RUS	2299	7,5	48,0	37,00
3	WFM	Jose Rulp Lem	PHI	2038	7,0	51,5	38,50
4	WFM	Tay Li Jin Jeslin	SIN	2124	6,0	51,5	31,25
5		Docena Jedara	PHI	2032	6,0	50,0	30,75
6		Medina Lovelyn	PHI	1908	6,0	48,0	26,75
7		Saeidpour Mona	IRI	1899	6,0	47,5	29,00
8		Palomo Jenny Rose	PHI	1873	6,0	42,5	24,50
9	WFM	Salman Mahini Mona	IRI	2044	5,5	52,0	29,00
10		Ronna Reig Ner Senora	PHI	1861	5,5	49,5	25,75

Complete results HERE

IM Barbosa's best game in 2010 Penang Open

This blog has been receiving special privileges lately. First, we're indeed thankful that IM Oliver Dimakiling shared with us here his favorite game in the 2010 Penang Open tournament which he topped.

And now, we must be thankful again that IM Oliver Barbosa (in photo), the second finisher of the same event, also graciously made available his best game in the said international competition, for all of us to enjoy. Notably, IM Barbosa piled up 7.5 points, the same output scored by the champ Dimakiling.

These days, Barbosa distinguishes himself by playing a special role in the preparation of the six-man Philippine Men's Team which took part in the 2010 Asian Games where our team won the epic silver medal. With that role, Barbosa would now go into the books of Philippine chess history as part of that historic moment.

I deemed that it is only just, fair, and reasonable that Barbosa also be accorded the praises - and incentives - due him. I don't know, though, if he received monetary rewards from the National Chess Federation of the Philippines for that special role.

Let's watch this game and find out why it's his favorite.

IM Oliver Barbosa vs IM Luis Chiong
Round 6, 2010 Penang Open

Play Online Chess

[Event "2010 Penang Open"]
[Site "Meralco"]
[Date "2010.??.??"]
[Round "6"]
[White "IM Oliver Barbosa"]
[Black "IM Luis Chiong"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]

%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. Bg5 Bg7 4. c3 O-O 5. Nbd2 d6 6. e4 c5 7. dxc5 dxc5 8.
Bc4 Nc6 9. Qe2 h6 10. Bh4 Nh5 11. O-O Na5 12. Rad1 Nc4 13. Nc4 Qc7 14. Ne3
Nf4 15. Qc4 Be6 16. Nd5 Nd5 17. exd5 Bf5 18. Rfe1 Rfe8 19. Rd2 Rad8 20. h3 a6
21. a4 g5 22. Bg3 Qa5 23. h4 Bf6 24. hxg5 hxg5 25. Be5 b5 26. Qc5 Rc8 27. Qe3
Qa4 28. Ng5 b4 29. c4 Qd7 30. Rd4 Be5 31. Qe5 f6 32. Qg3 Qd6 33. Rf4 fg5 34.
Qg5 Qg6 35. Rf5 Qg5 36. Rg5 Kf7 37. Re4 Red8 38. Rf5 Ke8 39. Rfe5 Rc7 40. Re6
Ra7 41. d6 R8d7 42. Kf1 a5 43. c5 Kf7 44. de7 Ke8 45. Rh4 Re7 46. Rh8 Kf7 47.
Re7 Re7 48. Rh7 Ke6 49. Re7 Ke7 50. Ke2 Ke6 51. g4 1-0

Dream team?

BY: BOBBY ANG
(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 18 December 2010)

With the Philippines’ successful showing in the 2010 Asian Games Team Championship, I have read several posts declaring GMs Wesley So, Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio, John Paul Gomez and Darwin Laylo as our "dream team."

This is a discussion which is repeated over and over again every time we come out with a good performance. GM Torre has been in so many of our national teams -- would you like to read about his opinion here? He considers the 1974 Nice Olympiad squad as the true "dream team" of the Philippines. Due to the popularity of the article I wrote last week which gave an excerpt from the aborted Torre book, I have decided to share another one, in GM Torre’s own words.

1974 PHILIPPINE CHAMPIONSHIP
Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Center
March 15 -- April 11, 1974

1. IM Eugenio Torre, 15.5/19
2. IM Rodolfo Tan Cardoso, 13.5/19
3-4. IM Renato Naranja, Rosendo Balinas, Jr, 12.0/19
5-6. Ramon Lontoc, Jr, Glenn Bordonada, 11.5/19
7. Roberto Kaimo, 11.0/19
8-11. Roger Abella, Roger dela Vega, Glicerio Badilles, Rico Mascarinas, 10.0/19
12-13. Edgar de Castro, Julian Lobigas, 9.0/19
14-15. Vic Torre, Rafaelito Maninang, 8.5/19
16. Susano Aguilar, 8.0/19
17. Cesar Caturla, 7.5/19
18. Mariano Acosta, 6.5/19
19. Edwin Edillon, 5.0/19
20. Roberto Lopez, 1.0/19

(by way of history, the top 6 placers of the 1974 championship was the basis for the formation of the Nice Olympiad team)

The 29-year-old Bob Kaimo was among the leaders for much of the tournament and was very unlucky to finish just half a point out of the cutoff. I sort of empathized with him because he showed great determination to make the team and even quit his job with Elizalde & Co. to prepare for the tournament. He was also one of the better-known local players. At around this time Mr. Campomanes had been hosting a TV chess show Chess with the Masters, and its highlight was a competition among National Masters where after the game the winner or sometimes even both players are asked to give their comments, and during the TV broadcast these insights would be spliced together with the actual game for the audience’s benefit. This was a great idea, of course, and Willie Monta won the first edition. In the second year, when the idea had already caught on and became quite popular it was Bob Kaimo’s time to win.

Sadly, this was the closest Bobby ever got to representing his country in the Olympiad team. Soon after he left for the United States and has not competed here again.

The top six were named to the "Philippine Dream Team" which was to represent the country in the Nice Olympiad. We had a real mix of veterans and youth players. Glenn Bordonada represented the up-and-comers. In the 1973 National Students Championship he had tied for runner-up honors with Cesar Caturla and Lito Maninang behind winner Rico Mascarinas. These four were seeded to play in the final round, and here it was Bordonada (three-time UP Champion) who pushed ahead and made the team.

Some people had asked me whether this so-called Dream Team was really the strongest team we have ever formed to represent our company in international competition. If we are to consider ratings, the squads which represented us for the past few Olympiads definitely have a higher average rating than us. I don’t even have to check that. The formula to determine team ratings is to get the top 4 boards and get the mean of their ratings. In 1974 I was 2450, Rudy Cardoso 2385, Nats Naranja 2395 and Balinas was unrated, which means an assigned value of 2200. That means our team is rated 2358.

The top four boards of our 2006 Turin Olympiad team is GM Mark Paragua (2617), myself [Torre] (2543), GM Joey Antonio (2539) and IM Darwin Laylo (2406) -- do we even have to bring out our calculators to see that the Turin team far outrated Nice?
The measure of a "Dream Team" could also be the number of titled players, in which case the Turin team with three GMs, one IM and two FMs is decidedly superior to our Nice squad which only had three IMs.

How about final placing? Well, Nice did pretty well at 11th place, but the 1988 Thessaloniki team with myself, Mascarinas, Ruben Rodrigue, Joey Antonio, Eric Gloria and Rogelio Barcenilla did one better by finishing 7th. The 1968 Lugano team which finished 14th without a single titled player also has claims to the best finish considering that they were seeded very low (there were still no ELO ratings then) and it was a great shock for them to outdistance England and Israel in their preliminary group.

So why do I still maintain that the 1974 Nice Olympiad team is the "Dream Team" for the Philippines?

First, it was the strongest possible team at that time. Unlike the practice, regrettably usual in these times, when a qualifying tournament is announced with limited notice, giving no time for the provincial players to participate, the 1974 championships was a product of a nationwide talent search. Maybe Ruben Rodriguez, who was campaigning in the United States and could not participate, or Bob Kaimo or Rico Mascarinas could have beefed up the team, but there were only 6 slots available and someone had to give.

Second of all, the composition of the team had all the "name" players. Ramon Lontoc, Jr. was an 8-time National Champion whose first title was in 1931, before the second world war, at the age of 14. He was among the first four National Masters of the Philippines, who were declared as such as the top four placers of the 1956 Representatives’ Tournament the others being Florencio Campomanes, Rodolfo Tan Cardoso and Glicerio Badilles. He had entered the championship with only one goal: to gain renewed recognition but managed to put together a string of victories, including against Cardoso, Naranja, De Castro, Bordonada and Kaimo, among others.
Rodolfo Tan Cardoso, the pride of Alaminos, Pangasinan, was the first Filipino Asian Zonal Champion (1956), and as early as 1956 was already a part of the Philippine national team (this was in Moscow). His great play there earned for him the title of Asia’s first International Master.

Renato Naranja was our 1958 Junior Champion and over the next 10 years consistently participated in, and won, several national tournaments. In 1969 he became the Asian Zonal Champion, ahead of Walter Shawn Browne, at that time playing for Australia but who was soon to transfer to the United States. Here is something interesting -- after his result in this Zonal Browne was invited to play in a grandmaster tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he earned the grandmaster title by tying for second behind Boris Spassky. He was later to go on and win the US Championship six times, a number exceeded only by Bobby Fischer and Samuel Reshevsky.

And then of course there is Rosendo Balinas Jr, who dominated Philippine chess in the ’60s. He was the only player to hold Bobby Fischer to a draw in the "Beat Bobby Fischer" series sponsored by Meralco in 1967. Here is that thrilling game which even had Fischer impressed.

Balinas, Rosendo Carrean -- Fischer, Robert James [B70]
Meralco (5), 1967
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There is also the 1968 Meralco National Open Chess Tournament, where foreign players representing Yugoslavia, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were invited for the first time. This was supposed to be a cake walk for Yugoslav GM Svetozar Gligoric, but Balinas chased him all throughout the tournament and at the end they tied for first with 12.0/15.

Bali later on after 1974 Nice earned his International Master in the Melbourne Zonals with an unbelievable final spurt of 6.5/7. In 1976 he became Asia’s second International Grandmaster via his well-publicized "Conquest of Odessa".

He was one heck of a player. I regret to have been able to play with him together in only two Olympiad teams -- here in Nice, and two years later in Haifa.

Reader comments/suggestions are solicited. E-mail address is bangcpa@gmail.com

STCAA 2001

BY: ANTHONY NAVARRO
(a.k.a. pinoymaster77, Chesswindows Laguna correspondent)

This experience of going through the various level meets such as Cluster/District Meet, Unit Meet then City or Provincial Meets made me realize that an actual grassroots program actually exists via these Palaro stepladded qualifiers and the bases are the public and private schools, and this is in place not only for chess but for various sports including the sport of sepak takraw!

From the District level Meet, I witnessed how the public schools at least in our newly emerging city of Binan even don't have a computer at this day and age, and the chess players' levels are sorely lacking, like they're not accustomed to Eureka chess sets with the guide on rows and columns for the notations but rather used to wooden chess sets.

This also means that the players don't know moves notations yet. I've learned that this summer the city of Binan might have some program for chess basics.

At the Unit 1 Meet (Binan, Cabuyao,San Pedro) level hosted by Cabuyao, I learned the transition of paperworks from District to Unit, what a TM (Tournament Manager) means and does, and where some of the taxpayers' money goes by way of allowances, meals and other expensed budgets. I also saw first hand how some parents still resort to brazen tactics, like the CR (restroom) variation. At least, I didn't get to witness the signal (senyas) variation.

Now, for the Provincial Meet level, I got to appreciate how BIG Laguna is with its various towns consisting of 4 Units. In the opening ceremonies, Unit 1 donned the red uniforms. Unit 2 with the black shirts is comprised of the towns of Bay, Victoria, Pila, Calauan,Alaminos. Unit 3 donned the green shirts, composed of Nagcarlan, Sta Cruz,Cavinti,Los Banos,Liliw and Magdalena while Unit 4 with the white shirts had Pagsanjan, Lumban,Siniloan, Kalayaan, Pangil,Pakil,Paete,Famy, Mabitac and Sta Maria. I also learned of the documentation requirements from the securing of medical certificates from Laguna provincial Doctor to the securing of fresh certification of grades.

From the 3 remaining Caritas Don Bosco bets to the Provincial Meet, Jolo Lat made it through for HS Boys chess and Puchle advanced for lawn tennis. Christian had tough matches vs Oqeundo of Los Banos and Eric Yap of Siniloan and actually had advantage in some stages of the games, but didn't find the best continuations. Jolo rebounded from a poor start on the first day of action where he only had 1/2 point after 2 rounds, coming up with 3 successive wins on the 2nd and final day including a clinching win over erthswhile unbeaten Angelo Tandang of Los Banos to secure the Board 2 spot.

It reportedly gets even tougher with each City of Province scheduling at least a month's training before the STCAA? Now, I understand why private school athletes are hesitant to join such qualifiers due to the heavy toll it can have on a player's academics. The STCAA (Southern Tagalog Meet) will be scheduled sometime in Feb 2011 in Lucena City. Again, the top 2 qualifiers from the 4 Divisions will advance to the Palarong Pambansa which will be staged in Cagayan De Oro City this year.

Joyful Jose Lorenzo Lat after he clinched the Board 2 slot in HS Boys, with Coach Vic Vargas,CM,Dennis and me.

Jolo Lat and CM with TM Rose Ravelas (Pila Principal)

Unit 1 athletes and coaches in red uniforms. Christian is with Elem Girls entry Mia Salvador and her coach.

Paragua tops 10 Grand Prix Points Tonight Chess Championships

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

FILIPINO Grandmaster (GM) Mark Paragua extended his winning streak in the United States as he emerged as the overall champion in the recently held 10 Grand Prix Points Tonight Chess Championships in New York City, USA.

The third seed Paragua, the 2003 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games most bemedalled athlete subdued top seed American International Master (IM) Alexander Lenderman in the fourth and final round to finish unbeaten with 4 points in four outings.

The Meycauyan-Marilao ace Paragua, whose stint here is backed up by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) President/ Chairman Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr., Filway Marketings Inc. CEO/ President Hector "Chito" Tagaysay and New York Immigration lawyer Gerry Albano, ealier beat Scot Elheny, IM Oliver Chernin and GM Jay Bonin of the United States, respectively.

The former child prodigy Paragua, the 1998 Disneyland, Paris, France World Rapid Under-14 champion also settled runner-up place over eventual champion GM Bonin a few days later in the event dubbed as 4 Rated Games.

All-Asian affair

Now, it's all Asians. From the initial 64 contenders from different parts of the world, the number is reduced to four - and they all come from Asia. To be specific, three come from China and one, from India.

It's indeed a total Asian domination in the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship.

Let's meet the semi-finalists:
WGM Ruan, Lufei (China)
GM Zhao, Xue (China)
GM Koneru, Humpy (India)
GM Hou, Yifan (China)

May this trend - that is, Asian women's chess global domination - inspire our local chess leaders to provide more focus on Philippine women's chess development.

These are the games that made the semi-finals of the 2010 WCCC an all-Asian affair:
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LA SALLE WOODPUSHERS INCH CLOSER PRADA CHESS TITLE

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

THE La Salle Green Hills (LSGH) woodpushers was full in display as they trounced their respective opponents and boosted their bid for another chess title this year in the on-going 2010-2011 Private Schools Athletic Development Association (Prada) Chess Tournament at the International School of Manila in Taguig City.

The LSGH bannered by Jan Nigel Galan, Giovanni Mejia, Trio Ramos, Miguel Lahoz, Luke Matthew de Leon and Alexander Mendonez blanked Marist School-Marikina, Don Bosco Tecnological Institute,International School of Manila, Lourdes School of Mandaluyong, Pasig Catholic College, Brent International School (Laguna) and Don Bosco Tecnological College to leading the way in the Junior division.

The LSGH, playing under the banner of head coach International arbiter and national master Erwin Carag, who is best to remember winning the NCAA Chess title early this year, compiled a total perfect 28 points going to the last two around assigments against Notre Dame University -Caloocan and defending champion Ateneo de Manila University.In the midget category, Ateneo Blue Eaglets showing the way with a similar 28 points at the helm is Jett Cadawas-Marcos

Chess and management

(BY: ANTHONY NAVARRO, a.k.a pinoymaster77, Chesswindows Laguna correspondent)

Many people ask me 'Are you a chess player?' or maybe they are wondering 'why are you into chess?', a 2nd childhood, a hobby? Well, it was not in my path to play chess competitively since during my younger years, I was too pre-occupied with finishing college and building up a career and improving my family's financial standing in order to support the growing needs.

But when I look back and at this relatively advanced age, it is time to retrace the roots and give something back. Through chess during my younger years when I was the 'barangay prodigy', I learned some concepts which actually if we will analyze are the exact same skills and mindset needed for supervision or management, for which I've been blessed to be in that level the past 15 years or so. In fact, it we trace back the management functions or activities as per the various seminars, we can outline the applications or parallelisms as follows :

1 . PLANNING
This includes developing opening repertoire for white and black, mapping out what tournaments to participate in, knowing the major contenders and what type of field / competition level it would be. Can also apply the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT)analysis here.

2. ORGANIZING
Includes preparing for the tournament format (how many rounds, time control, venue / how to get there), plus who will go with you for the meeting time and place. Preparing what to bring as per organizers' requirements, like if needed a copy of birth certificate, school id, pen/pencil and notebook and in some cases chess sets and clock.

3. CONTROLLING / DIRECTING
The player moves his pieces, and there are many rules as per FIDE and the player needs to be aware. Time per move also has to be controlled as per the time format. The key principle of time management also plays a critical role here, to avoid getting into time trouble and doing rash, inaccurate moves. For example, strictly speaking if late for a game, FIDE rule is to forfeit the game.

It also includes keeping your nerves and composure in control, specially during pressure situations (time trouble, spectators milling around a crucial game).

4. MONITORING
The player needs to know exactly what's going on in the chessboard, both for his pieces and his opponent's. It also needs to be extended beyond the chessboard like the venue/officials (tendencies of the arbiters), even the opponent's parent or coach kung may ibang ginagawa and the spectators.

So you see chess has many applications. It is also proven to improve math skills since it involves calculation, problem solving, analytical skills. There are many studies in the First World on this. I can attest that all my kids who play chess have high grades in Math or Algebra in the high 80's or even in the 90's.

So I hope parents get to read this and get their kids into chess. Ideal to start in competitive tournaments is 7 to 8 yrs old as per experience, so they can have time to develop their skills and reachtheir peak when they are at Grade 6 or 7.

IM Dimakiling's favorite game in 2010 Penang Open

We are highly privileged that IM Oliver Dimakiling (in photo), champion of the recently concluded Penang Open 2010, shared with us his most favorite game in the tournament.

Despite the odds of playing with Black and facing a higher-rated opponent, IM Dimakiling displayed a commanding game - let me say brilliancy - to win in style.

Thanks and congratulations again to IM Dimakiling. Let's watch and enjoy the game:


IM Mas Hafizulhelmi vs IM Oliver Dimakiling
2010 Penang Open Malaysia
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Asian domination

Talk about Asian power. Of the eight remaining women players contending for the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship, six come from Asia.

Nowadays in women's chess, Asian power is synonymous with Chinese and Indian chess.

After Round 3 of the 2010 WCCC, four Chinese and two Indian women players stand to show domination among the last eight remaining players from the initial 64 contenders. The other two who made it come from Ukraine and France.

Here are the remaining eight players:

• WGM Ruan, Lufei (China)
• IM Harika, Dronavalli (India)
• GM Koneru, Humpy (India)
• WGM Ju, Wenjun (China)
• GM Hou, Yifan (China)
• GM Lahno, Kateryna (Ukraine)
• GM Zhao, Xue (China)
• IM Skripchenko, Almira (France)

What about seeing the (Philippines) beside a name in the list? Possible, of course.

The possibility would be greater if more focus is accorded to the development of Philippines' women's chess.

But if the direction of the total Philippine chess community continues to subject Philippine women's chess to men's chess, then that small possibility would be as good as nil.

Have a glimpse of the Asian power in the 2010 WCCC:
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