2011 Inter-Provincial Chess Team Championship

Twenty eight teams. A total of 136 players. Some teams have four players, others have five.

I don't know if they have coaches. But I'm sure, they have "managers" or "financiers."

Welcome to the beautiful Kalibo, Aklan - a blessed land famous for its Ati-Atihan - for the 2011 Inter-Provincial Chess Team Championship which will run from April 1 to 5.

This year's edition of the inter-province tourney (although some teams do not represent a province) is seeing the participation of eight FIDE-titled players. The rest are non-titled.

Of the participating titled players, three are GMs, three are FMs, one is a CM and one is a WFM. Not one IM participated.

I'm curious why the field doesn't even have a single IM. If our IMs can participate in international competitions outside the country, why not in a local tourney?

It's a good thing that the field has the names that sound as GM Wesley So, GM Mark Paragua, GM John Paul Gomez, and FM Paulo Bersamina.

But I was expecting more GMs and IMs in the list. If GMs So and Paragua could fly in from Canada and the US, respectively, for this important event, how couldn't the other big names in Philippine chess who are already based here in the country do just the same?

Ideally, it's best to see the best players of the country leading their respective teams to glory in this kind of competition.

Perhaps team competitions here have become heavily financier-based.

I think we need a genius out there who could think of a way to at least lessen the need for financiers, or at best to get them out of the picture, in forming and sending players to team competitions.

This event offers P100,000 top prize for the champion, P70,000 for the second placer, and P50,000 for the third placer.

The other prizes are P30,000 for the fourth placer; P20,000 for the fifth placer; P10,000 for the sixth placer; P9,000 for the seventh placer; P8,000 for the eighth placer; P7,000 for the ninth placer; and P6,000 for the 10th placer.

Top individual performers from boards one to five shall also get P2,000 each and medals.

A team can field in four regular players and one alternate but can only accommodate one titled player who will man the top board.

After two rounds of play, three teams have remained unscathed. The teams of Tagaytay City (bannered by GM Wesley So), Misamis Oriental (GM Mark Paragua) and DAR Quezon City (Senador Emmanuel) are now leading the pack with two team wins each.

Rank after Round 2

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	4	TAGAYTAY CITY	2	2	0	0	4	8.0	0
2	3	MISAMIS ORIENTAL	2	2	0	0	4	8.0	0
3	5	DAR Quezon City	2	2	0	0	4	7.0	0
4	1	LWUA "A"	2	1	1	0	3	6.0	0
5	7	LWUA "B"	2	1	1	0	3	6.0	0
6	2	CABUYAO (LAGUNA)	2	1	1	0	3	5.0	0
7	16	Peter I. Kimpo Chess Team Aklan	2	1	1	0	3	5.0	0
8	20	CAPIZ	2	1	1	0	3	5.0	0
9	23	PALAWAN	2	1	1	0	3	4.5	0
10	8	BACOLOD-NEGROS CHESS TEAM (N.I.C.A.)	2	1	1	0	3	4.5	0
11	11	Dep Ed A	2	1	1	0	3	4.5	0
12	9	SOUTH COTABATO	2	1	0	1	2	5.5	0
13	14	BULACAN BYCF	2	1	0	1	2	5.0	0
14	13	ILOILO CLUB 64, INC	2	1	0	1	2	4.0	0
15	19	ASU-CIT-AKLAN	2	1	0	1	2	4.0	0
16	24	PASSI CITY	2	1	0	1	2	4.0	0
17	26	Team C AKLAN	2	1	0	1	2	4.0	0
18	12	ANTIQUE	2	1	0	1	2	3.0	0
19	18	ACCENTURE CHESS ENTHUSIASTS CLUB (A)	2	1	0	1	2	3.0	0
20	15	GOV. BOMBIT ADIONG, LANAO DEL SUR	2	1	0	1	2	2.5	0
21	6	MAKATI TEAM	2	0	1	1	1	3.5	0
22	25	Team B AKLAN	2	0	1	1	1	3.0	0
23	22	LA PAZ (ILOILO) CHESS CENTER	2	0	0	2	0	3.0	0
24	10	LWUA "C"	2	0	0	2	0	2.0	0
25	17	ACCENTURE CHESS ENTHUSIASTS CLUB (B)	2	0	0	2	0	1.0	0
26	27	Team E AKLAN	2	0	0	2	0	1.0	0
27	21	Dep Ed B	2	0	0	2	0	0.0	0
28	28	Team F AKLAN	2	0	0	2	0	0.0	0

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for wins, 1 for Draws, 0 for Losses)
Tie Break2: points (game-points)
Tie Break3: The results of the teams in then same point group according to Matchpoints