MARIKINA ROTARY CHESS TOURNAMENT

By: Marlon Bernardino

Dante Leonardo Verano, son of P.P Dante Verano of Marikina Rotary Club 3800 garnered 5 points in as many outings to rule the Rotarians Section of the Marikina 3800 Active chess tournament held at the Rotary Youth Center over the weekend.

Verano, or DL as he is fondly called, a Marist School of Marikina Juniors stalwart employed his pet London opening to demolished Emil Aco in 30 moves of the fifth and final round. Verano forced open the seemingly closed position to attack Aco’s castled king by opening up the g-file with with a g5 pawn push to set up a battery position with his two rooks aiming at the castled king lying at h7 square and combining with powerful bishop and queen maneuver controlling the c1- h7 diagonal forcing the elderly Aco to resign and clinch the elegant Championship trophy.

Emil Aco of Metro Valenzuela Rotary Club contend himself of the 1st runner up plum. In the student section, Haince Patrick De Leon and Julius Gonzales clinched the 2nd and 1st spots respectively to come home richer with P1,500 and P2,000 and elegant trophies. De Leon, 10 is the country’s under 10 representative in the Asian Youth Chess Championships held in Beijing China last year.

The Champion, Julius Gonzales, who just celebrated his 9th birthday last January 27th of this year, is the country’s under 8 standard event silver medalist in the 11th edition of the ASEAN Age Group chess championships that was held in Subic Olongapo of June last year. Category winners in the top Marikina Rotary 3800 players are Jessie Cruz, 3rd placer, Hermie dela Paz, 2nd and Joe Judan, 1st. The 3 received their respective category awards.

Rounding up the top 10 winners are:

Rotarians Section:
1- 5 pts Dante Leonardo Verano
2-4 4 pts Emil Aco, Joe Judan, Bong Tebelin
5-10 3 pts Mario Bandelaria, Joseph Aco, Nanding Paunil, Elwin De Jesus, Hermie Dela Paz, Alpie Dimanlig.

Students Section:
1- 5 pts Julius Gonzales
2- 4.5 pts Haince Patrick De Leon
3-4 4 pts Jhun Langote, Christeo Bermido
5-9 3.5 pts Albert Nova, Jesus Copino, Michael Ignacio, Paul Relativo, Treb Liquigan
10- 3 pts El Nino Malabiga

NM Rudy Ibanez, Arellano and Ateneo University chess coach served as tournament arbiter.