Tuesday, December 23, 2008 TCC snags second spot in Handuraw ‘08
TEAM Cebu City Chess rallied hard in the final day with a win over Bicol squad to salvage the first runner-up honor of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) organized 2008 Handuraw Festival National Chess Team Championship held at the Dapitan City Cultural Centrum in Zamboanga del Norte yesterday.
International Master Richard Bitoon (elo 2439) drew his match against NM Edmundo Gatos after 35 moves in Board 1 and the Cebuanos won, 3.0-1.0.
“Of course, we still congratulate the team. They tried their best, only that there were circumstances that needed to be considered. First, the disqualification of Kim Yap to play, because he already acquired his International Master norms, which slowed down our chances of winning the championship. Surely we will continue to strengthen the team for future tournaments,” said Cebu City Councilor and the chair of the council sports committee Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem.
Norm
Yap acquired his third and final norm to become an International Master last Dec. 10 in the Singapore tournament. The Dapitan City tournament allows only one title player to play for the team and Bitoon was chosen to play for the team.
The victory gave TCC Chess a total of 10.0 match points that tied with Surigao del Norte team.
But by virtue of their victory over Surigao del Norte squad, who had GM John Paul Gomez at Board 1 last Thursday, TCC nabbed the first runner-up title via 19.0 to 17.0 game points.
Voltaire Sevillano defeated Bong Oriada in Board 2 and Merben Roque toppled Manny Camposano in Board 3. Richard Natividad drew with James Fenandez in Board 4.
“This was the best we could do. We gave our best and we have to live by it. I guess the title was not meant for us,” Bitoon told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
“It was a grueling match for the team. The attention, however, was focused on both Tagaytay City and Cebu City. TCC beat Tagaytay in the Bacolod City competition where we came out champions, while here Tagaytay was the better team,” said team manager Nicol Quiros.
Contender
Tagaytay, which was led by GM Darwin Laylo, won the title with 12.0 match points.
Roque also was judged as the medalist on Board 3.
“For sure we will be strengthening our program in chess because as survey shows, 80 percent of Filipinos know the basic moves of the game and this game had proven to sharpen the minds of the players, they had better IQ and good discipline,” added Jakosalem. (RCM)
