NATIONAL MASTER ROGELIO ENRIQUEZ Jr. was close to perfect as he yielded only one round to complete a four-peat in the 2018 Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) Grand Finals at the Royale Cebu Estate in Consolacion, Cebu on Sunday, Dec. 9.

Enriquez, the University of San Jose-Recoletos head coach in both the high school and college levels, finished with 10 points from 10 wins and one loss.

The single loss of Enriquez came against Joselito Loques in the fifth round.

The graduate of Bachelor of Education major in Filipino defeated Dominador Salazar, Neal, Amores, Percival Fiel, Arnolito Cadiz, Mario Bustillo, Joel Atillo and Edilberto Velarde Jr.

Qualifiers Eduard dela Torre, Zilerstein Torres and Richard Quano were not able to play in the grand finals, and games against them were counted as default victories.

Salazar finished at second place with 9.0 points and Neal Amores was at third place with 8.0 points. The top three players in the grand finals received P5,000, P3,000 and P2,000 in cash prizes, respectively.

On the other hand, Ruel Hortelano won the Cepca Non-Qualifier B tournament with 5.0 points, while Ramil Fernandez and Jonathan Canque finished as runners-up with identical 3.5 points.

Cepca president Jerry Maratas said it had been a positive year for the Cebu-based club, having done some charitable activities and chess tournaments.

“I believe this year is very positive for Cepca. We have a lot of activities, and at the same time we did our monthly tournaments, grand finals and the Boy Pestaño Memorial Open Chess Tournament in honor of the late Boy Pestaño who’s the heart and soul of Cepca,” he said.

Pestaño was a former chess columnist for SunStar Cebu and SunStar Superbalita.

“We had charitable activities also wherein we donated chess equipment in a chess center. Overall, the year has been very productive, and we look forward to next year,” added Maratas. (RSC)