Geronimo bags chess title

CITY Treasurer's Office (CTO) player Reynaldon Geronimo scored perfect seven points to emerge champion in the Mayor Inday Sara and Vice Mayor Rody Duterte 76th Araw ng Dabaw 2013 Davao City Hall Employees (Dachea) Chess Championship that came to a close at NCCC Mall Davao Function Cove on Thursday afternoon.

Geronimo, seeded 15th, upset second-seed Crestino Arriesgado of the City General Services Office in the seventh and final round of the Swiss System format tournament sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP)-Davao Region.

He also outclassed Danilo Rodrigo of CGSO, Severino Gadian Jr. of City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), Augusto Bernardo of CTO, Joseph Gabut and Jimmy Barangay of City Administrator's Office and Marvin Auxillo of the City Agriculturist's Office in the previous rounds.

Severino and Auxillo, who tallied 5.5 points each, grabbed the second and third place, respectively, while Barangay took the solo fourth spot with five points. Gabut and Rodrigo, who earned identical 4.5 points, occupied the next two spots even as Arriesgado led four other four-pointers Ronald Gepte of CTO, Reynaldo Saludes of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, Bernardo and Vincent Marasigan of SP via superior tiebreaks.

Three-pointers Danilo Eliot of SP, Carmelo Limbohan of Cenro, Michael Kempis of SP, Gina Aclon of SP, Herbert Rad Lapido of CTO and Rodrigo de Leon of Cenro placed 12th to 17th while SP's Jose Marie Balaman (2.0), City Agri's Carlos John Necor (2.0), City Admin's Raul Castillo (1.0), Casso's Bai Shadia Manampan (1.0) and Lina dela Cerna (1.0) trailed behind.

The Dachea sportsfest, sponsored by the City Government of Davao through the Sports Development Division of the City Mayor's Office (SDD-CMO) also features badminton, volleyball, bowling, basketball and billiards, among others.

The City Engineer's Office swept the men's and women's crowns of the volleyball competition while Alexander Abellana of SP crowned himself 9-ball champion.