Saturday, February 02, 2008 Mercado strikes anew, rules Tagoloan Open By Lynde Salgados
WINNING three successive tournaments here in a two-month span, veteran National Master Levi Mercado could outrightly retire from chess with his head up high. But the indefatigable Mercado, who literally completed a "grandslam" by topping the just-concluded Tagoloan Open, is wanting for more.
"I'm no longer a 30-year-old but my enthusiasm for the game is still great," Mercado told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. And using a Duran-Duran hit song in the 80s as his metaphor, Mercado added: "I'm hungry like a wolf in as far as winning more tournaments is concerned. It's a lot of fun for me to continue learning chess. The richness of this creative yet highly challenging game is still far from being exhausted."
Fresh from winning the blitz (10 minutes) and active (30 minutes) chess events at the Provincial Capitol Chess Park, Mercado proved that his acumen in the standard mode of play (one hour play-to-finish) is equal to the task. He defeated fellow master Roger Verganio, former national Shell junior champion Bryan Jose, and Xavier University senior varsity team skipper Silverio Abasolo en route to pocketing the P5,000 top purse of the 2008 Tagoloan Fiesta Open chess tournament that ended Friday at its municipal park canteen.
Mercado actually finished in a tie with Nazario Ubanan at 5 points in six rounds. But the former, who yielded two draws on top of his four wins, prevailed in the Bucholz tiebreaker. Ubanan, who shocked Johnnel Balquin in the second round, got the second place worth P3,000.
Sharing third to fifth places at 4.5 points each are NMs Verganio and Ernesto Fernandez and the the other conqueror of Balquin in 22-year-old Bryan Jose who also inflicted on Pagadian pride Fernandez one of his few losses.
Sixth and seventh places went to Jake Gonzales and John Vincent Cayaba. Still, the visibly off-form Balquin made it to the top 12 circle in the company of Jokorn Maestrado, Marvin Naduma of Malaybalay City, Abasolo, and 17-year-old Alfredo Rapanot Jr.
"With a strong cast of experienced players, the Tagoloan Open is quite difficult for youthful participants such as Rapanot. Still, the boy from Macanhan was able to come up with a decent score besting the likes of Abasolo and engineer Wilnar Lunaan," Maestrado quipped.
National Arbiter Domingo Oga said Tagoloan Mayor Paulino Emano and Misamis Oriental Vice Governor Norris Babiera both pledged to come up with bigger chess competition in the near future in cooperation with Provincial Capitol Chess Club president Lorimer "Memen" Moreno and newly elected NCFP Board of Director Valentino "Val" Rosabal.
