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Monday, August 22, 2005
Robles defends crown
DEFENDING champion Jose Roble Jr. duplicated his impeccable performance last year to bag his second consecutive title in the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships Visayas leg.
Roble, top player of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) chess team, beat University of Cebu’s John Cuyag yesterday at the SM City-Cebu foodcourt to claim the Junior division (2-Under) championship and lead the six-player Visayas delegation to the Oct. 15-16 grand finals in Manila.
Joining the electronics and communications engineering senior in the Manila tournament are first runner-up Kim Steven Yap of the University of San Carlos and Cebu Institute of Technology’s Zilberstein Torres.
In the Kiddie division (14-Under), Yves Fiel prevented out-of-town players from sweeping the major awards after the 11-year-old grader from Argao town halted a spectacular six-win run by 7-year-old Jerad Docena in the final round to claim the title also with a perfect output.
Kiddi division
Roble went through emotional highs and lows in the seven-round tournament after an incident in the fifth round nearly wiped away his championship aspirations.
Roble lost to Alex Nacario in the fifth round, which should have ultimately ended his bid for a spot in the grand finals.
However, before the sixth round could start, it was found out that it was not Nacario but a certain Jomar Pasaylo who played against Roble. Pasaylo was promptly banished from the tournament, while Roble was the given the win.
Getting a second lease on life, Roble, of Carmen, Cebu, then wasted no time in restoring order to his bid for back-to-back titles by winning his last two assignments, capping it with the victory over Cuyag, who lost by time forfeit in a Nimzo-Indian Defense game, to post a perfect score of seven points.
Cuyag wound up fourth, while Jimson Bitoon was fifth.
Missed win
Yap, a former national champion in the Kiddie division and first runner-up in the Junior division grand finals last year, and Torres, a first-time finalist, battled each other in the final round with neither player giving the other space in a Giuco Piano opening.
Playing white, Yap missed a winning move in the middlegame, which allowed Torres to wrest a small initiative.
But with their clocks dangerously breaching the final five-minute mark and with no clear win in sight for either side, Yap and Torres quelled the tension by agreeing to a draw, an anticlimactic conclusion but enough for both players to book a spot in the finals.
Yap and Torres, whose older brother Yuri topped the Visayas leg two years ago, both finished with 6.5 points. Yap collared the first runner-up spot on tiebreaks.
The Kiddie division had a more gut-wrenching conclusion.
Playing the white pieces, Fiel, a finalist in 2003, was set for a slambang encounter when Tagbilaran City’s Docena opened with the Dragon setup, perhaps the most violent and complicated variation of the various Sicilian defenses.
Flank attacks
With the kings castled on opposing flanks, Fiel quickly launched a customary kingside assault, while Doceno, sitting on top of three stacked chairs, hoarded his major pieces across the white king in the queenside.
As the game entered a critical point in the middlegame, it was clear the younger player had more to learn on the tactically-rich Dragon variation. On the 20th move, Fiel’s queen and minor pieces had swarmed the Docena’s king, while the rooks were ready to join the fray. Resignation followed a few moves later.
Taking the runner-up spot and a place in the grand finals was Cagayan de Oro’s Lennon Hart Salgados, who survived a miserable position to beat the Jerich Cajeras of Escalante. Salgados, son of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro sports editor Lynde and the Filway Open Kiddie champion, also had seven points, but had an inferior tiebreak score.
Securing the last finals spot was Bacolod City’s Joel Pimentel, who beat Docena’s older sister and tournament top-seed Jedara in the final round to post 6.5 points. Cy Balbanera and Yuri Cauba rounded out the top five.
Gov. Gwen Garcia handed out the awards to the winners along with Shell officials and tournament coordinator National Master Ben Macapaz.
(August 22, 2005 issue)
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