Monday, October 09, 2006 USC chess kings at last By Jaime Frias II Sun.Star Correspondent
THE University of San Carlos (USC) ended their five-year title drought after copping the Cesafi chess title yesterday at the University of Cebu (UC) main campus audio-visual room.
But it was UC that made shock waves in the two-day event, after ruling the secondary division and the tertiary women.
"This is a fruitful year for UC chess, though we didn't get the tertiary men's title," said UC head coach Romeo Romagos of their 2006 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc. (Cesafi) campaign.
Defending champions University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) was relegated to fourth place, with Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) taking third.
Penultimate round
Leading a half point after the penultimate round, the USC Warriors got the needed points in the final round to seal the title, after having a truce with the UC Webmasters, 2-2, in the final round of the round-robin tournament.
Kim Steven Yap and the unheralded Amercito Lumbab, who both went undefeated in their board assignments, secured the title after pulling wins in the last round.
Yap scalped James Angelo Uy in 20 moves of the highly explosive Sicilian Sozin at board one, while Lumbab upset Shell National Youth Active Chess finalist Gabriel Ortiz in 19 moves of the Queen's Indian Defense at board four.
However, UC leveled the match, courtesy of Merlou Dapar and Brian Patalinghug.
USC finished with 11 points, while UC settled for second place with 10.5 points.
CIT had 10 points after demolishing the University USJ-R, with 7.5 points, in the final round.
Women’s chess
In the distaff side of the tertiary division, the lady Webmasters shocked defending champion USJ-R Lady Jaguars, 2.5-1.5, in the last round to win this year's title.
USJ-R landed second with eight points, while USC Lady Warriors had 6.5 points for third.
In the boy's secondary division, UC escaped from defeat after Cy Balbanera and Nikki Sabiquil leveled the match for the second time in the double round-robin tournament format.
Sabiquil pulled the first win but it was Balbanera who pulled the exclamation after surviving from a thrilling endgame against Yuri Cauba at board one.
UC had 11 points while USJ-R had 9.5 points to cop second.
Don Bosco College had third with 3.5 points.
In the girl's secondary, which had only two entries, UC ruled after besting USJ-R twice in the double round-robin tournament.
"Next year, we are considering having a powerhouse line-up in the tertiary men's," said UC secondary coach Loiue Navaja.
