CORPUS Christi School is finally back as overall champion in secondary chess of the 22nd Milo Little Olympics Mindanao concluded here on Sunday at the 2nd floor of Limketkai Mall.
As the CCS girls amassed 13 match points to defend the crown, the Knights upstaged defending champion MOGCHS, 3-1 in fifth round then, conquered Iligan City National High School and Zamboanga del Sur NHS in the last two rounds to complete a sweep of the titles in high school chess rivalries.
“Corpus Christi did good this time around. Mobawi na lang mi next year,” said MOGCHS coach Chito Teopiz, who relied on Asean age-group gold medalist Ronald Canino and last year’s Milo junior chess MVP Christian
Aquino on the top boards.
Prior to the 2018 Milo chess warfare, the Corpus Christi coaching staff have agreed to assign the board one position to Kenneth Caingin with David Rey Ancheta, Euneil Grant Capilitan, Charles Klent Gabing and Cressler Bruce Gabing playing board 2, 3, 4 and alternate, respectively.
Ancheta, the reigning National Shell Active Chess titlist, consistently played board one in the first four rounds. And so Capilitan and the Gabing brothers on the remaining boards. A move that quite surprised MOGCHS when meeting them in the fifth round as Caingin was fielded on the top board for the first time with Ancheta facing Aquino on board 2 and the more experienced pair of Capilitan and Charles Gabing taking on the rookie tandem of Paul Andrew Romanda and Joel Lawrence Hoy.
Canino did succeed in beating Caingin. But his teammates fell one after the other in the lower board matches as the Junior Knights enter the last two rounds with a 2-point edge.
“I’m so happy that the gambit paid off and our head coach had gamely welcomed the suggestion to arrange our secondary boys lineup that way,” said Dave’s ever supportive mother, Jeanny Ancheta.
The Corpus girls came to defend the crown without Althea Borres. In her place was another Althea by the family name Bansiloy. Alongside Palaro veteran Lorebina Carrasco II on board one, Gwen Escarda on board two and Alysa Caryl Maestrado as alternate, they went on to rule the distaff chess skirmishes without yielding a round just like their male counterparts.
“It’s so scary against MOGCHS kay una na-atake ang backrank ni Gwen sa Rook ni Rhea (Canino) and then one piece down si Lorie but 3 pawns up opposite Gwen Amper on board one,” said Lorie’s father, Emmanuel Carrasco. But it was 3-0 in favor of the CCS girls when the smoke of battle cleared.
Later, Lorie shared she purposely made the exchange sacrifice to have a favorable endgame. And it took her 7 minutes of critical analysis to have the courage to execute it.
Still, MOGCHS managed to secure the runner up honors both in secondary boys and girls chess competition.
Iligan City National High School occupied third in boys division, while Cagayan de Oro National High School did the same in girls category of the Milo chess that attracted close to 50 elementary and secondary schools from all over Mindanao.