2010 LSMS CHESS TEAM TOURNAMENT BOYS (Grade School Division)

PREPARED BY: ENGR. JOEL HICAP

FINAL RANKINGS

P L A C E	Team	W	D	L	Pts.	MP
CHAMPION	Don Bosco-Caritas	10	0	0	36½	20
2	Hope School-Makati	8	1	1	32½	17
3	Southridge-Paref School	7	1	2	26½	15
4	Elizabeth Seton School-Main	5	2	3	21½	12
5	Brent Int'l. School Manila-Team Y	4	2	4	18½	10
6	Canossa Sta. Rosa	2	4	4	18	8
7	De La Salle-Lipa	3	1	6	16	7
8	St. Simon Montessori-Calamba	3	2	5	15	8
9	Brent Int'l. School Manila-Team X	2	3	5	14½	7
10	De La Salle-Zobel	1	3	6	12½	5
11	Brent Int'l. School Manila-Team Z	0	1	9	8½	1

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

2010 Asian Games

This will be the second time that chess will be included as an official sport in the Asian Games - only now when Asian Games is already in its 16th edition.

Considering that Asiad is held only every after four years (Asiad started in 1951) makes chess a real newbie in this regional competition.

Chess was first included as an official Asian game sport in 2006 during the 15th Asian Games which was held in Doha, Qatar. Some 42 Asian countries fielded delegations for the chess competition which consisted of three gold medal events: Mixed Team, Men`s individual and Women`s individual championships.

The team competitions were played over three boards with men on the first and third boards and a woman on second board. There were no alternates.

In the Mixed Team classical event, the Philippine Team finished at No.8. RP's GM Darwin Laylo (who was an IM then) and IM Ronald Dableo finished 8th and 15th, respectively, in the Men's Individual rapid category. Meanwhile, Jedara Docena made it to the 12th spot in the Women's Individual rapid category.

I am not sure if this year's edition, which will be held in Guangzhou, China in November, would still employ the same 3-board format.

By the way, it was reported that GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. was reinstated to the RP Team for the 16th Asian Games.

In the previous edition of the Asian Games, the RP Chess Team was not able to win any medal. Let's hope for a better performance this time.

GO RP CHESS TEAM!!

GM Topalov vs GM So game annotated

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece ["Bad show"], BusinessWorld, 11 October 2010)

2010 Olympiad
Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Sept 21-Oct 3, 2010

Final Top standings

(in tie-break order)

1. Ukraine, 19/22

2. Russia 1, 18/22

3-4. Israel, Hungary, 17/22

5-10. China, Russia 2, Armenia, Spain, United States, France, 16/22

11-19. Poland, Azerbaijan, Russia 3, Belarus, Netherlands, Slovakia, Brazil, India, Denmark, 15/22

149 teams participating

The Philippines did not do too well in this Olympiad by finishing 50^th, lower than our seeding of 37^th. We defeated five teams (Korea, Paraguay, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and Turkmenistan), all of whom were rated lower than us.

Our two draws were against Scotland (bad) and Argentina (OK), and four teams defeated our country: Spain, Belarus, Bulgaria and Estonia. Narrowly losing to Spain and Bulgaria should be considered a good result, but then we were expected to draw against Belarus and defeat Estonia.

It was to be expected of course that there were some grumblings seen and read in both print and Web media. Many of them were actually quite idiotic, but not all, some made sense.

From the Philippine Chess Portal of Hector Santos I saw this posting from someone who called himself obiwankanoebi (hope he doesn’t mind me translating it to English).

"If we can recall the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden our team officially placed 46^th. Now in Russia 2010 officially number 50! What is happening to us?

"Previously International Grandmasters Eugene and Joey complained that the round-robin qualifier to determine our Olympiad squad was too long and tiring, and there was even no prizes or appearance fees offered. There were even some suggestions that the two be seeded straight into the team without need to pass through any qualifiers because any they have high ratings and are very experienced. Anyway, the team that qualifier through the various eliminations and played in Dresden 2008 performed miserably.

"This year our team members were chosen based on performance and rating, so what happened in Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 -- they still performed miserably! They even replaced GM Joey and now it seems that GM Joey was right that the team needed him.

"You know what? I think that there is a common problem for our national teams, be it Olympiad or Asian team or any other team competition -- My opinion is that we are handicapped by having no clear training program and common team exposure. Also, we do not have a strong team captain -- perhaps a committed training director who has the clout to force the players to observe their training regimen.

"There is no clear-cut direction for us -- where have the funds that the Philippine Sports Commission set aside for chess gone? We need the national leadership to sit down and seriously review our chess programs. We cannot go on like this that there is no grass-roots development, that the only thing the federation does is organize two or three international tournaments which usually the foreigners win.

"The players who are to represent us in international competition should not be allowed to compete without first passing through a training program -- there have been too many episodes, either men’s or juniors or kiddies, where we were pitiful.

"We should not rely on one or two players to give glory to Philippine chess."

Ten years ago the Chess Society actually tried this. The Philippine Chess Federation (PCF) forms the teams and then sends them to the Chess Society for training, and our experience has been good: Darwin Laylo, a complete unknown then, finished half a point behind Sasikiran in the Asian Junior Championship, but leaving in his dust several highly rated and regarded players. We finished tied for second in the 1999 Asian Team Championship although we fielded "a very weak team" as one of the chess journalists wrote at that time. And GM Joey went to the World Championship in Las Vegas and really put a scare into the eventual silver medalist.

Yes, obiwankanoebi, your formula works.

None of our players were in especially good form. Wesley doesn’t seem to have snapped out of his draw slump, and everybody else lost rating points. It is a bit sad, but the best game of anybody in our team is a draw -- the one Wesley achieved against Topalov. Let us take a look at it.

Topalov, Veselin (2803) -- So, Wesley (2668) [D87]
39th Olympiad Men Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (8.18), 29.09.2010
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Final position

A good fighting draw.

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IM De Guzman tops 2010 Dolan Memorial international chess tourney

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

FORMER Asian junior champion International Master (IM) Ricardo "Ricky" de Guzman (in photo)
lived up to his high billing by ruling the 2010 Dolan Memorial international chess tournament at the Mechanics Institute Chess Club in San Francisco, California, USA last October 9.

Tha Cainta, Rizal native de Guzman beats Jeffrey Xiaoyang Zhang, Daniel Liu, compatriots Arjoe Loanzon and Romulo Fuentes and Paul Gallegos to win the championships trophy in the 5-round United States Chess Federation (USCF) sanctioned tournament which attracted 41 woodpushers.

De Guzman, the 49-year-old Hayward, California based who is best remembered for winning the 1981 Asian Junior Chess Championships in Dhaka, Bangladesh who was awarded an outright IM title, also topped the 2010 Pafnutieff Open Chess Championships last August 7 at the same venue.

Other de Guzman’s chess title in the United States that includes Bagby 2010 last July 17 at the Mechanics Institute Chess Club in San Francisco, California, 2010 Sacramento Chess Championships last July 3 to 5 at the Sacramento Chess Club, 2010 Bekeley Open last June 26 to 27 at the Palo Alto Chess Club in Berkekey, California, Addison 2010 Chess Championships last June 12, among others.

Ukraine wins Olympiad

BY: BOBBY ANG

(As published in Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 08 October 2010)









2010 Chess Olympiad
Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Sept 21-Oct 3, 2010

Final Top standings
(in tie-break order)

1. Ukraine (seeded 2nd, Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Eljanov, Efimenko, Moiseenko), 19/22

2. Russia 1 (seeded 1st, Kramnik, Grischuk, Svidler, Karjakin, Malakhov), 18/22

3-4 Israel (seeded 11th, Gelfand, Sutovsky, Smirin, Rodshtein, Mikhalevsky), Hungary (seeded 5th, Leko, Almasi, Polgar, Berkes, Balogh), 17/22

5-10. China (seeded 3rd, Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, Zhou Jianchao, Li Chao), Russia 2 (seeded 4th, Nepomniachtchi, Alekseev, Vitiugov, Tomashevsky, Timofeev), Armenia (seeded 6th, Aronian, Akopian, Sargissian, Pashikian, Grigoryan), Spain (seeded 16th, Shirov, Vallejo Pons, Salgado Lopez, Magem Badals, Alsina Leal), United States (seeded 9th, Nakamura, Kamsky, Onischuk, Shulman, Hess), France (seeded 10th, Vachier-Lagrave, Fressinet, Tkachiev, Edouard, Feller), 16/22

11-19. Poland (seeded 15th), Azerbaijan (seeded 7th), Russia 3 (seeded 14th), Belarus (seeded 35th), Netherlands (seeded 13th), Slovakia (seeded 22nd), Brazil (seeded 24th), India (seeded 19th), Denmark (seeded 44th), 15/22

149 teams participating

Time control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30-second increment every move starting move one.

Individual Medalists:

Board 1
1. GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 8/10, performance 2890
2. GM Levon Aronian ARM 7.5/10, perf 2888
3. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi RUS2 6.5/9, perf 2821

Board 2
1. GM Emil Sutovsky ISR 6.5/8, perf 2895
2. GM Zoltan Almasi HUN 7/10, perf 2801
3. GM Wang Hao CHN 7.5/10, perf 2783

Board 3
1. GM Vitaly Teterev BLR 7/8, perf 2853
2. GM Pavel Eljanov UKR 7/10 perf 2737
3. GM Sergei Rublevsky RUS3 8/11, perf 2727

Board 4
1. GM Sergey Karjakin RUS1 8/10, perf 2857
2. GM Zahar Efimenko YKR 8.5/11, perf 2783
3. GM Anish Giri (NED) 2730, 8/11, perf 2730

Board 5
1. GM Sebastien Feller FRA 6/9, perf 2708
2. GM Mateusz Bartel POL 7/9, perf 2706
3. GM Vlastimil Babula (CZE) 7/9, perf 2668

Ukraine won the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad led by the prolific point-making of its team leader, Vassily Ivanchuk and board 4 Zahar Efimenko. The only other time it has won the Olympiad was in 2004 Calvia with a team composed of Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Andrei Volokitin, Alexander Moiseenko, Pavel Eljanov and Sergey Karjakin.

Ivanchuk is the consummate team player -- he is always available to play for his country. He has played twice (1988 and 1990) for the Soviet Union team before the breakup, and 10 times (unbroken) for Ukraine (nine times on top board) from 1992-2010. Neither does he screen opponents -- no matter how high or low the rating of the opponent Chuckie shows up to do battle.

He also played several outstanding games. For now I will show you this one.

Ivanchuk, Vassily (2754) -- Jobava, Baadur (2710) [B12]
39th Olympiad Men Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (7.1), 28.09.2010
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The other heavy-hitter for the Ukrainians is GM Zahar Efimenko, a former youth standout (he is now 25) whose rating is steadily going up. Mukachevo recently sponsored high-profile training matches for him against Nigel Short and former German Champion Arkadiy Naiditsch which he both lost 2.5-3.5.

Efimenko, Zahar (2683) -- Stojanovic, Dalibor (2496) [C77]
39th Olympiad Men Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (5.5), 25.09.2010
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For a tournament run on match-points the likelihood of many teams sharing the same spotlight is to use total game points. Here is Khanty-Mansiysk there was a new tie-break rule the logic of which I have difficulty understanding:

If "Tiebreak 1" (match points) is equal, then "tiebreak 2" will decide. Tiebreak 2 is the match points of your opponents multiplied with the result versus them (i.e. opponent A has 10 match points and the match was a 2-2, then it is 10 * 2 = 20). Additionally the weakest result of a team getting deleted.

Did you understand that? I am a bit of a cynic, but it is my belief that this rule was instituted to make computations for tie-break results almost impossible to ascertain before the games start, and this discourages collusion.

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

RP Women's performance in 2010 Chess Olympiad

RP Team (Men and Women) in the 2010 Chess Olympiad. BACK ROW, from right: GM John Paul Gomez, IM Richard Bitoon, GM Wesley So, GM Darwin Laylo (GM Eugene Torre not in photo). FRONT ROW: WFM Catherine Pereña, WFM Shercila Cua, WFM Chardine Cheradee Camacho, Rulp Ylem Jose and Jedara Docena. Photo courtesy of Chardine.

RP Women's OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts.	Games	Rp
1	WFM	Camacho Chardine Cheradee	2186	PHI	1	½	1	½	1	1	0	0		½	½	6,0	10	2196
2	WFM	Perena Catherine	2103	PHI	1	0	1	0		1	½	0	1	0		4,5	9	2021
3	WFM	Cua Shercila	2099	PHI	1	0			½	1	0		½		1	4,0	7	2042
4		Jose Rulp Ylem	2039	PHI	1	0	1	½	½	1	1	0	1	½	½	7,0	11	2075
5		Docena Jedara	2033	PHI			1	1	0			0	1	½	½	4,0	7	2001

The RP's Women's Team gave their last ounce of courage to defeat Team Brazil in the last round of the 2010 Chess Olympiad to post a decent 44th place finish, ahead of their initial No.52 seeding.

Though they fell short of improving the country's 43rd finish in the 2008 Dresden Olympiad, this young group of WFM Chardine Cheradee Camacho, WFM Catherine Pereña, WFM Shercila Cua, and untitled Rulp Ylem Jose and Jedara Docena holds a lot of promise.

These Pinay heroines exhibited gallant stand to erect a +5-4=2 performance, with three of their five victories done via ruthless 4-0 shutouts. More than the figures, these Pinays unleashed a remarkable sense of bravery and tenacity in their desire to win - a characteristic which hopefully redefines the image of the global Filipina.

Thier overall performance was highligted by their stubborn draws against No.23 seed Team Israel in Round 4 and Team Argentina in Round 5, which only proved that if given the needed support, our Filipina chess warriors could really be at par with the world's leaders.

The loss to neighbors Vietnam and Indonesia, however, positioned the state of Philippine women's chess in relation to where we are now and where we are heading. Yes, we might have the jewels, the ladies. But the question is: are we polishing them enough so that we bring out the brightest sparkle in them?

It's been my view here that one way of empowering Philipine women's chess is to 'feminize' Philippine chess. When I say feminizing Philippine chess, let's provide more incentives and spaces for women in how chess is run in the country. Give them more seats at the NCFP, in chess clubs, in arbitration, etc.

Pause for a moment and consider this: in the past stagings of the Battle of Grandmasters, the gap of prizes in the Men's and Women's division have always been insulting the distaff side. How can you promote women's chess that way?

Our Pinays just deserved praises and thanks for their successful campaign in the 2010 Chess Olympiad.

Let's all hope and pray that that's just the beginning of a rosier future ahead of Philippine women's chess.

Mabuhay ang Pinay!!

RP Men's Team performance in the 2010 Chess Olympiad

Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pts.	Games	Rp
1	GM	So Wesley	2668	PHI	1	½	½	½	½	½		½	1	1	½	6,5	10	2658
2	GM	Gomez John Paul	2527	PHI	1	0		½	1	½	1	0		½	½	5,0	9	2454
3	GM	Laylo Darwin	2522	PHI	1	½	0			0	1	0	1		½	4,0	8	2451
4	GM	Torre Eugenio	2489	PHI			1	½	½		½	1	1	0		4,5	7	2460
5	IM	Bitoon Richard	2447	PHI	1	½	½	1	1	0	½		1	½	0	6,0	10	2406

Final ranking: 50th place (out of 142 teams)

It was the worst ranking achieved by Team Philippines (Men) in the history of its participation in the Chess Olympiad since 1956. The darkest period of RP Men's performance in the Olympiad was its last three participation - 44th placer in Turin (2006), 46th placer in Dresden (2008), and now 50th placer in Khanty Mansiysk (2010). The results are clear enough: the performance of the RP Men's Team in the Olympiad is getting worse. No ifs, no buts, those are real numbers in your face!!

And clearly enough, too, a performance in the olympiad is not directly correlated to the number of GMs we can produce in this country. The numbers speak for themselves. Isn't it ironic that we achieved our worst performance when we have the highest number of GMs? Remember our team's performance in Round 7 versus Puerto Rico whose strongest player was an IM and whose other three players were "only" Candidates Masters (CMs), yes, not even Fide Masters (FMs)?

And again, clearly enough, the direction of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) of being so obsessively concerned with the numbers - that is, counting the number of GMs being produced - would only lead the Philippine chess to nowhere.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:

- A rock-solid performance (+3-0=7) by the country's ace GM Wesley So whose showing was highlighted by his draw in Round 8 against GM Veselin Topalov. He was the only member of the RP Men's Team who gained Elo points from the tournament

- In terms of Performance Rating, all members of the team performed below their Elo ratings

- Except Wesley, the rest of the team suffered Elo losses. The biggest loser was GM Darwin Laylo who shed off 6.9 Elo points

- GM Eugene Torre also had a strong showing (+3-1=3)

- Our team had 5 wins (all against lower rated teams), 4 losses (against 3 higher rated teams and 1 lower-rated team), and two draws (against 1 higher rated and 1 lower rated teams)

Camacho is RP's new WIM

BY: CASTOFCLOWNS

WFM Cheradee Camacho earned the title Woman International Master (WIM) as early as Round 5 of the just concluded 2010 Chess Olympiad with a win against IM Carolina of Argentina. By then she already earned enough Elo points to surpass the 2200 mark, the only remaining barrier towards her WIM title. Congrats WIM Camacho for becoming the fourth WIM of the Philippines!

GM Wesley So vs GM Diego Flores game annotated

BY: BOBBY ANG

(An abridged version of Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 04 October 2010)

So, Wesley (2668) -- Flores, Diego (2615) [A56]
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk (10), 01.10.2010
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NATIONAL BOOKSTORE FIRST MOVE CHESS TOURNAMENT (U-8)

BY: IA/NM ERWIN CARAG




FINAL RANKINGS:

1ST - DENNIS GUTIERREZ III - 5 POINTS (TIE-BREAK 14)

2ND - DIEGO DELOS REYES - 4 (TIE-BREAK 13)

3RD - JOHN ROMVI MANALOTO - 3.5 (TIE-BREAK 11.5)

4TH - LIAM RAMOS - 3(TIE-BREAK 14)

5TH - FRANCIS AQUINO - 2 (TIE- BREAK 14.5)

6TH - PANCRATIUS VENTURA - 2 (TIE-BREAK 13)

7TH - WOO SUK KIM - 2 (TIE-BREAK 9.5)

8TH - SHANNON AGUIMBAG - 1.5 (TIE-BREAK 13.5)

9TH - CYRUS CANAPE - 1 (TIE-BREAK 12)

10TH - MARK AQUINO - 1 (TIE-BREAK 10)

NATIONAL BOOKSTORE FIRST MOVE CHESS TOURNAMENT (U-15)

BY: IA/NM ERWIN CARAG




FINAL RANKINGS:

1ST - DARYL UNIX SAMANTILA - 4.5 POINTS (TIE-BREAK 15) (HE IS ALSO THE SEPT. 2010 U-15 CHAMP)

2ND - JUSTIN CORPIN - 4.5 (TIE-BREAK 13)

3RD - JOSE CARLO CASTRO - 4 (TIE-BREAK 15.5)

4TH - JUSTIN PE - 4(TIE-BREAK 13.5)

5TH - JONALYN ABAJON - 3 (TIE- BREAK 15.5) (RMCHS) (BEST FEMALE PLAYER)

6TH - PHILIP UY - 3 (TIE-BREAK 12.5)

7TH - JR LIRAZAN - 3 (TIE-BREAK 10)

8TH - LUCAS RAMOS - 3 (TIE-BREAK 9.5)

9TH - MHARK CEQUENA - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 16)

10TH - JD MOJE - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 8)

11TH - MATTHEW GRANADA - 2 (TIE-BREAK 13)

12TH - AARON GABRIEL TANYAG - 2 (TIE-BREAK 12.5)

13TH - LEONARD KHO - 2 (TIE-BREAK 11.5)

14TH - NERISSA FERRER - 2 (TIE-BREAK 11)

15TH - RONALD SALAMAT - 1 (TIE-BREAK 14)

16TH - RUSSELL BLACK - 1 (TIE-BREAK 13)

17TH - VINCENT CALUAG - 1 (TIE-BREAK 13)

NATIONAL BOOKSTORE FIRST MOVE CHESS TOURNAMENT (U-11)

BY: IA/NM ERWIN CARAG




FINAL RANKINGS:

1ST - KUSHAGRA SHARMA 5 POINTS (TIE-BREAK 16) (FROM INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF MANILA)

2ND - BRENT ALANAN- 4 (TIE-BREAK 15) (GRADE 5 STUDENT FROM BINANGONAN, RIZAL)

3RD - JOSHUA TAN - 4 (TIE-BREAK 13.5)

4TH - ISRAELITO RILLORAZA - 4(TIE-BREAK 13) (FROM LAS PIÑAS)

5TH - NOAH RAMOS - 3.5 (TIE- BREAK 11.5)

6TH - DENNIS GUTIERREZ, JR.- 3 (TIE-BREAK 16.5)

7TH - RALPH NAVARRO - 3 (TIE-BREAK 14.5)

8TH - ANDREW SOPUNGCO - 3 (TIE-BREAK 14)

9TH - MIKAELA GUTIERREZ - 3 (TIE-BREAK 13.5)

10TH - FRANCIS ABUCEJO - 3 (TIE-BREAK 12.5)

11TH - JAN CEDRIC GUTIERREZ - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 14)

12TH - DARIEL DELOS REYES - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 12.5)

13TH - ABHINAV BATHULA - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 11.5)

14TH - JENNIFER SAWAKI - 2.5 (TIE-BREAK 10)

15TH - TIMOTHY DELA CRUZ - 2 (TIE-BREAK 17.5)

16TH - GAVIN ONG - 2 (TIE-BREAK 12.5)

17TH - JAIRU BILLOSO - 2 (TIE-BREAK 10)

18TH - DAVID ZHANG - 2 (TIE-BREAK 9.5)

19TH - ROSHAN KUMAR - 2 (TIE-BREAK 9)

20TH - JUSTINE CORTEZ - 1.5 (TIE-BREAK 13.5)

21ST - JUPITER LEE - 1 (TIE-BREAK 10.5)

22ND - ADRIAN ONG - 1 (TIE-BREAK 8)

23RD - ROI KAWAWAKI - 0 (TIE-BREAK 11.5)

24TH - MATTHEW LUA - 0 (TIE-BREAK 8)

Bobby Ang annotates Jobava -Carlsen game

BY: BOBBY ANG

(An abridged version of Chess Piece, BusinessWorld, 02 October 2010)

2010 Olympiad
Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Sept 21-Oct 3, 2010

Georgian men’s chess took off in the late ’90s with its first clear chess leader, GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Zurab was top board for his country up till the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. After that, starting Turin 2006, their new leader was the young Baadur Jobava, born 1983. The two of them was a study in contrast -- whereas Azmaiparshvili had a solid positional style with a limited opening repertoire, Jobava was a tactician who liked to throw in new moves and theoretical novelties to unbalance his opponent.

In round 4, when Jobava faced the world’s highest rated player, everybody expected him to play for a draw. After all, the team from Norway had two strong players (GMs Magnus Carlsen 2826 and Jon Ludvig Hammer 2633) and the rest were just IMs. A draw on board 1 and 2 would enable their lower boards to go for wins. Nothing of that sort. Jobava remained true to form by unleashing an unexpected novelty and won a tremendous victory. [PHOTO SOURCE: chessbase.com]

Jobava, Baadur (2710) -- Carlsen, Magnus (2826) [E24]
39th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk/Russia (4), 24.09.2010
REQUIRES JAVA

Barcenilla, Salvador: RP's new GMs

(IN PHOTO: GM Roland Salvador, left, and GM Rogelio Barcenilla)

BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

MANILA---ROGELIO "Banjo" Barcenilla (2518) and Roland "Kulot"Salvador (2511) was officially conferred the Grandmaster title by FIDE, the World Chess Federation, in a Presidential Board meeting coincide the on-going 39th World Chess Olympiad at the Complex "Arena Ugra" of Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

The Iligan City born Barcenilla which is now based in Arizona, Texas, USA,was conferred the title on the basis of his performance in the 2009 Copper State International Chess Championship held in Mesa, Arizona. The former San Sebastian College mainstay Barcenilla, a former Asian Junior Champion collected 7 points in 10 outings in the event that was won by Uzbek GM Timur Gareev which finished with 8 points. He beat whipped Georgian GM Zviad Izoria to gain his third and final GM result.

"Nagpapasalamat ako kay Cong Pichay (NCFP President/ Chairman Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr.) dahil malaki ang naitulong niya sa Philippine Chess despite all the hardship and minsan mga gulong nangyayari sa federation he never backdown which is a good sign of a very good leader so keep up the good work Cong. Pichay. I'm looking forward on playing big tourneys sa Philippines again. I just need to schedule it ahead of time." said Barcenilla in an email yesterday.

Barcenilla, also a blackbelter in Taekwoondo would like to thank the late Florencio Campomanes, the late Atty. Art Borjal, Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, Casto Abundo and Willie Abalos of NCFP, Edgar de Castro, Cebuano sportsman Bombie Barcenilla Aznar and Boogie Lim, his wife Lilibeth Lee, his father and mother Rogelio Barcenilla Sr. and Wilhelmina Padla, his uncle George Barcenilla, his father and mother in-law Antonio Lee and Hedelisa Lee for being very supportive through out his career in chess.
　
Salvador, who hails fom San Jose Delmonte, Bulacan earned his third and final GM title during the 11th edition of the International Chess Tournament Fermo-Porto San Giorgio held from Aug. 21 to 29 at the Astoria Hotelin Fermo in Italy.
The Italy based Salvador, a former top player of Rizal Technological University (RTU) under the wings of its president Dr. Jose Q. Macaballug and head coach Olympian NM Mauro Yasay in the mid-90s, was declared winner on best tie break score and he doubled the celebration by fulfilling his third and final GM norm by virtue of the 7/9 FIDE rule.

Thus, Barcenilla and Salvador join the ranks of RP’s elite group of GMs which includes Eugene Torre, the late Rosendo Balinas, Jr., Rogelio "Joey" Antonio Jr., Buenaventura "Bong" Villamayor, Nelson Mariano II, Mark Paragua, Wesley So, Darwin Laylo, Jayson Gonzales, John Paul Gomez and Joseph Sanchez.

In other latest news, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was re-elected as president of the World Chess Federation yesterday. He beat Anatoly Karpov, the former world champion, by a vote of 95 to 55. Each country in the federation, which is also known by the acronym FIDE (for Fédération Internationale des Échecs), had one vote. Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s new term runs to 2014; he has been president of FIDE since 1995.