CARITAS DON BOSCO GREYWOLVES SWEEP LSMS ELEM BOYS CHESS, FAITH (TANAUAN) DOMINATES HS BOYS

BY: ANTHONY NAVARRO (Chesswindows Laguna correspondent)

Eversince their first ever venture into the League of Southern Manila Schools (LSMS) chess realm last schoolyear, the Caritas Don Bosco School (CDBS) Greywolves Elementary Boys chess team composed of Christian Michael Navarro, Paolo Espiritu, Tetsuo Otsuka Jr, Edmund Cruz and Daniel Vincent Navarro were a bit surprised to be competitive at once, finishing a strong 2nd to De La Salle-Lipa, bannered then by top board Rubis and girl wonder Alexis Osena. Having whetted their appetites and with no graduating player, the team then set its sights to the next schoolyear 2010-11. And so it was a full year of preparation, including the summer and each player developed along his own path. A number of players also participated in NCR tournaments continously to go up against quality and top level competition and hone their skills.

The summer was marked with continued tournaments and chess clinics/seminars and this was the opportunity to meet up with Coach Vicente Vargas III of Letran Calamba College chess team. At the start of this school year and the 2nd year of the CDBS Chess Club, Coach Vic was introduced to CDBS' Bong Fernandez and Sports Director Enrico Katigbak and promptly tapped as Chess Club program coordinator / school coach. Exposures in tournaments such as Shell Active, Angping Cups, McDillan's Grill, PACE, National Bookstore helped finetune the skills of the players. And so, when the LSMS chess event was finally slated for October 2 and 9, the intact Greywolves team was raring to go! After a series of tryouts, the final board assignments were firmed up with Christian continuing to be the Board 1 anchor, the much-improved Tetsuo manning Board 2, Paolo Espiritu (Grade 4) covering Board 3, Daniel (Grade 3) taking care of Board 4 and Edmund Cruz being Board 5 / alternate.

This year's competition saw a welcomed increase in the number of Elem boys entries totalling 11 teams ,welcoming into the fold newcomers such as Christian Hope of Makati,Canossa Sta Rosa and St Simon Montessori (Calamba) joining holdover schools such as CDBS, DLSL, DLS-Zobel, Southridge,Elizabeth Seton and host Brent International School. Right before the LSMS event, I was able to encounter a couple of the Hope-Makati players and Coach Soria in the McDillan's Grill 2nd leg. They turned out to be the new challenger as they were hot on the tails of the CDBS Greywolves team at the onset. At the end of the 1st day on Oct 2 after 5 rounds, CDBS was pacing the field with a perfect 16/16 marked by 4 shutout wins, followed closey by Hope-Makati with 15 game points.

During the 1 week break, and reviewing the remaining rounds for the Oct 9 schedule, in order for the Greywolves to keep the lead it became imperative to maintain the searing pace of shutout or comfortable wins, and so it became a head-to-head race with Hope-Makati until the fateful 9th round showdown! At that point, CDBS was holding a 3 point lead, 26.5 to 23.5. And so during that fateful match, drama unfolded. First game to conclude was at Board 3 with Paolo Espiritu (black) recovering from an initial exchange down by unleashing a counterattacking mating net with his queen and knight for CDBS' first score, bringing down erthswhile unbeaten Josiah Lim. Daniel went a piece down, and was able to recover a piece through a combination, but overlook a double mating threat from Kyle Imperial's queen to eventually go down at Board 4 for a level score of 1-1. And so it was down to the final 2 boards. Christian prepared initially for a d4 defense but having detected some boards switch at the Hope-Makati side, we were expecting the a3 salvo from Na Ji-Hoon. True enough, that was the move but it turned out to be 'playing possum' as the game was transitioned into a KIA set-up. Na held his ground and it was even up to the endgame, and Christian just dug into his experience to outmaneuver Na's king enroute to an endgame victory. Tetsuo wrapped it up on Board 2 by building up on material advantage versus Brix Antonio to grind out the win and conclude the decisive 3-1 match result which afforded CDBS a commanding 5 point spread, 29.5 to 24.5. From then on, it was down to mopping out the remaining 2 rounds and keeping pace with Hope-Makati.

The CDBS Kiddie Greywolves proceeded with their appointment with destiny for the historic first ever LSMS championship for the School. As Board 1 / Team Captain Christian said 'Caritas is like DLSL last year, while Hope-Makati is like Caritas.' Unfortunately when I asked Coach Soria, all his players are already graduating. I also shared 3 of our players are graduating, and could see some smiles from opposing Coaches that it could be their time next year. As CDBS' Interest Club guru Bong Fernandez emailed to the Greywolves players : 'Congratulations! You have made history, we're proud of you!'

Looking ahead, in the HS Division, newcomer FAITH (Tanauan) likewise essayed a dominating performance with 39.5/44 ending up unbeaten what with its powerhouse line-up bannered by Shell finalist Davemar Prado at top board, Aldus Austria at Board 2, veteran kiddie Michael Manansala and Robert Tolentino. DLSL finished 2nd with 33 pts, while Seton (Main) wound up 3rd and Sta Rosa's Loius Ann Colleges placing 4th. It will be hard work ahead if CDBS eyes a better finish in the years to come.

In the HS Girls, DLS-Lipa defended its crown while Seton (Main) finished 2nd. In the Elem Girls, Seton (Main) emerged victorious. We hope the other schools also form their own girls' teams to have a wider field in the next years.

SUMMARY of PERFORMANCE - CARITAS ELEM BOYS

Board 1 Christian Michael Navarro 9/9
Board 2 Tetsuo Otsuka Jr 8.5/9
Board 3 Paolo Espiritu 8/9
Board 4 Daniel Vincent Navarro 6/8
Board 5 Edmund Cruz 5/5

TOTAL 36.5/40