Monday, October 06, 2008 Team Fischer wins Ungab Cup
TEAM Fischer completed a wire-to-wire finish in ruling the 1st Rep. Isidro T. Ungab Cup Inter-Team Chess Championships Friday.
Spearheaded by Engineer Jun Atmosfera, Team Fischer accumulated 29 points in the double-round event to win by 2.5 points over Team Alekhine, which placed second.
Needing to score only 2.5 points in the final round to secure the crown, Team Fischer breezed through and its final day drive was aided by the fact that closest pursuer Team Alekhine was held to a 2.5-2.5 draw by Team Capablanca of Chris Yap.
Capablanca leaned on board 3 player Nestor Ngo, who smashed Eric Yngayo's defense, and Eugene Pangdan, who beat Ryan Pacana. Edwin Gallera drew with James Apao.
Four boards in the Fischer-Topalov match all ended up in fighting draws while board 2 bet Erwin Tubog lost to Topalov's Alex Jover for a 2-score.
The match between Atmosfera and Atty. Jong Guevarra ended in a draw, but it was an exciting one
Guevarra prepared the Chinese variation of the Sicilian Dragon against Jun Atmosfera's usual e4 opening, but Atmosfera, sensing that he is up against a prepared variation, varied his third move and opted for the King's Indian Attack.
Undaunted, Guevarra shifted to attack mode and a tactical melee ensued. Just as the attack was about to crash through, Guevarra was stunned by his opponent's unexpected reply and lost his bearings, forcing him to offer a draw in a slightly inferior endgame position on the 43rd move.
Post-mortem analysis showed that Guevarra could have won a piece at the crucial moment.
At board 5, Dante dela Cruz of Team Fischer took to heart the team's strategy of getting at least 2.5 points that he sacrificed his queen against Topalov's Giovanni Mariano in order to salvage a draw by perpetual check.
Glen Paclar's Team Kasparov bested Team Kramnik, 3-2, to win third place honors. Paclar, despite laying off the game for some time, showed he still has the talent when he beat J.R. Batucan.
Scoring for Team Kasparov are May Micayabas and Janjay Literatus. Shell junior champion Neptali Batucan avenged his loss to kiddie winner AJ Literatus in the first cycle by beating him.
The individual board winners are Henry Fajardo (Board 1), Erwin Tubog (Board 2), Jobert Lumanta (Board 3), May Micayabas (Board 4), Edwin Gallera (Board 5) and Roy Alfafara (Board 6).
They will all receive cash prizes, gold medals, and Chess Life Magazines. The magazines are courtesy of IM Marlo Micayabas, 1982 Asian junior champion, and the brother of May Micayabas.
Marlo Micayabas is from Toril, Davao City but who now lives in New Jersey, USA and works as lead computer programmer for UBS, one of the world's largest banks based in Zurich, Switzerland. (CRAM)
