SEEING new names emerge as champions while veterans keep their winning form in the ongoing Davao City Athletic Association (DCAA) Meet 2018 chess competition is a welcome development indeed.

Unheralded James Rhie Leigh Sullano of Unit 5 swept the elementary boys rapid and blitz gold medals. He tallied four points in rapid while 3.5 pointers Gabriel Lawrence Yamba of Unit 3 and John Mark Garcia of Unit pocketed the silver and bronze, respectively.

In blitz, Sullano earned 4.5 to outclass Christfel Sugarol of Unit 8 (4.0) and Gian Luis Navalta of Unit 6 (3.5).

Monica Lorraine Togonon of Unit 3, a nine-year-old student of Bago Elementary School, topped the elementary girls blitz chess with five points. Four-pointers Unit 8's Nathalie Suter and Unit 3's Ruth Literatus grabbed the next three spots.

Togonon, trained by her father Richard, also a chess player, qualified to play the city meet for the first time, thus, it was also her first gold ever in the DCAA Meet.

“Gipaspasan lang nako aron dili ko mahutdan og oras (I played with speed so I don't consume my time),” she told SunStar Davao in an interview at the Technology and Livelihood Education (TLE) Building of Davao City National High School (DCNHS).

Togonon also copped a silver in elementary girls rapid event that was ruled by Caerel Shane Mantilla of Unit 5. The latter made five points to clinch the gold while the former had four. The bronze went to Princess Marianne Buendia of Unit 1 who bested five other three-pointers via superior tiebreaks.

Bemedaled Irish Yngayo of Unit 5 and Blanche Ellyz Bongato of Unit 6 split the golds in secondary girls rapid and blitz, respectively.

Yngayo, 15, a University of Mindanao Grade 9 student, improved her Dcaa Meet silver performance last year. She, however, collected four golds in the Davraa Meet 2018 and brought home two Palarong Pambansa 2018 silvers.

She registered five points while Bongato (4.0) was second and Queen Peralta of Unit 6 (3.0) placed third.

Five-pointer Bongato lorded over her blitz rivals Peralta and Jan Chelsie Mendoza of Unit 8 who garnered identical four points.

Bongato, 13, a Grade 9 student of Stella Maris Academy of Davao, said the blitz gold was her first in Dcaa although she annexed a standard gold last year.

She admitted to have a 50-50 chance of ruling the standard this year due to the presence of arch-rivals Yngayo and Peralta.

John Kenneth Tan of Unit 1 captured the secondary boys blitz gold while Nicolas Bucog, Jr.of Unit 2 copped the secondary boys rapid gold.