ANNOTATED GAME: IM Enrique Paciencia

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, January 11, 2009.)

One Filipino who we do not see around here anymore but still very much active in the chess world is IM Enrique Paciencia.

In case you have forgotten the tumultuous chess years of 2000-2001, Enrique Paciencia shocked everyone by coming out of nowhere to finish second to GM Joey Antonio in the 2000 Philippine Millennium Grand Prix -- this is the KO tournament thought up by the Philippine Chess Society which offered a P1-million first prize. Naturally in the light of the huge prize fund most if not all of our top players competed, and Paciencia’s performance was an eye-popper.

I’d like to mention here that we saw one very endearing quality of Paciencia -- his humility. Shortly after losing in the finals to GM Joey, when the heat of battle was still heavy on both players’ minds, one interviewer asked him why he lost to GM Joey. His answer was the simple: "I think Joey is just a superior player."

In the light of this accomplishment "Patience" (this nickname has later evolved to "Pacman," because of you-know-who) was inserted into the Philippine delegation competing in the 2000 Vung Tau Zonal to determine the region’s representative to the FIDE World Championship in Delhi later that year. This was perhaps the last zonal dominated by Filipinos -- GM Bong Villamayor tied for first with Vietnam’s GM Dao Thien Hai and there was a massive tie for third at 6/9 with Petronio Roca (awarded the bronze medal), GM Utut Adianto, GM Joey Antonio, the comebacking IM Rico Mascarinas, Enrique Paciencia, and Richard Bitoon.

Following the qualification rules of FIDE at that time, due to their having attained 2/3 of the maximum number of points (6/9), Roca, Paciencia and Bitoon should have been automatically awarded the International Master title (why "should have been"? well, read on).

But then it was here at the brightest spot of his career that politics intervened. In August 2000 this writer, together with Mr. Campomanes and some businessman friends together with the help of our Grandmasters (there were only three at that time: Torre, Antonio and Villamayor) organized the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and managed to get it recognized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) as the official governing body of the chess in the country. There were a lot of issues then -- if you have time you should look up my columns during that period you will get an earful!

Anyway, the NCFP sent a team to the 2000 Istanbul Olympiad with myself as team captain and bd1 GM Eugene Torre, bd2 GM Joey Antonio, bd3 GM Bong Villamayor, bd4 IM Barlo Nadera, bd5 Idelfonso Datu, bd6 IM Ronald Bancod. The former Philippine Chess Federation (PCF) sent its own team, arguing that it is still the official Philippine representative: General Manager Enofre Manuel, Team Captain Edgar de Castro, bd1 IM Rogelio Barcenilla, bd2 IM Petronio Roca, bd3 IM Richard Bitoon, bd4 IM Enrique Paciencia, bd5 Rolly Martinez, bd6 Jayson Gonzales.

During the FIDE General Assembly, it was decided with finality that NCFP is the "right" Federation, the PCF delegation were asked to go home and the PCF team, of course, not allowed to play.

Anyway, what happened AFTER the Olympiad was even more damaging. This writer, considering his job done, having removed a "corrupt and inept" (notice the quotation marks) federation and put in place one which is by the players and for the players, retired from the NCFP in 2001, and the new management saw fit to destroy everything he worked for by deciding to discipline the six PCF players by banning them from tournaments and also refusing to endorse the "International Master" titles which were rightly theirs (remember Vung Tau). I will not go into the details anymore, suffice it to say that banning and "disciplining" players and removing their means of livelihood is one of the "corrupt" practices that I had sought to destroy.

In the middle of 2001, having no source of income, Enrique Paciencia asked for my help and I appealed to Ignatius Leong, the Singaporean chess head honcho, to accept him as one of the coaches in Singapore. I will let "Patience" himself continue telling this story:

"I left the Philippines in 2001 for a coaching job in Singapore. Five years later my family followed and we have since settled down here. Although life is still not very easy it is much better compared to when I was in the Philippines. My family most especially the kids like it here.

"I am now playing under the Singapore Chess Federation. I transferred I think some three or four years ago. I have played in the last Olympiad in Dresden in 2008. Although busy with work still there is some time to play chess especially those one-day tournaments. There are not so many regular tournaments here as I think most are busy and cannot participate in long tournaments. But if there is an opportunity I try to play.

"Our coaching job is quite challenging but at the same time very fulfilling. I enjoy teaching kids and that makes it easier for me. The work hours are also not that long maybe about 4-5 hours a day. Although it doesn’t include travel time which sometimes can be a lot because we have to go to different places. But overall this is really going great for me.

"My achievements so far (if you can call it as such) are being appointed as National coach for the Singapore Women’s Team in the Bled Olympiad in 2002, and SEA Games in Vietnam in 2003. I also coached in several international tournaments most notably in the World Youth and ASEAN Age Groups. And then this year I won the national championships in Rapid and Blitz and at the end of the year I also won the commonwealth championships."

The Commonwealth Championship referred to above is the competition among countries formerly belonging to the British Empire. This is not a frivolous association, as there are 54 independent states involved here. Previous champions are GM Nigel Short (2004, 2006, 2008), GM Murray Chandler (1984 and 1987), GM Ian Rogers (1983, 1989), GM R.B. Ramesh (2007), GM Dibyendu Barua (2003).

2009 Commonwealth Chess Championship
Singapore
December 10-14, 2009
Final Top Standings
1. IM Enrique Paciencia SIN 2424, 7.5/9
2. IM Jayaram Ashwin IND 2448, 6.5/9
3-4. CM Max Illingworth AUS 2211, FM Timothy Chan Wei Xuan SIN 2384, 6.0/9
5-6. IM Chandrashekhar Gokhale IND 2259, FM Daniel Howard Fernandez SIN 2230, 5.5/9
Total of 25 participants

Here is the clinching game of the Commonwealth tournament, after winning it Paciencia was already at 7/8, a full 1.5 points ahead of his closest pursuer with one round to go. It is also illustrative of his style -- outwardly very simple and calm, but actually a lot of tactical calculation is going on under the surface.

Thakur, Akash (2368) -- Paciencia, Enrique (2424) [A43]
Commonwealth Championships (8), 13.12.2009
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Congratulations to the Pacman!