THE Davao Chess Eagles soared to capture the title of the 1st Mindanao Regional Chess Team Championship online tournament recently.
Davao Eagles amassed a total of 2,455 points to emerge champion over perennial rival Region X-Men, who garnered 2,187 points to settle for the runner-up honors in the event sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).
Trailing behind were Zamboanga Caballeros (1,964), Sox Warriors (1,732), Caraga Miners (1,623), and Kutawatu Vanguards (1386) who grabbed the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth places, respectively.
The Eagles clawed all their rivals in five rounds of both standard and chess 960 regular and executive categories. Davao demolished Kutawatu Vanguards, 539-481, in the first round before thrashing Region X-Men (439-368), Zamboanga Caballeros (468-298), SOX Warriors (493-301), and Caraga Miners (516-287) in the four remaining rounds.
It is interesting to note that even though no Davao player topped the individual rankings either in executive or regular standard and chess 960 events, the Eagles still came out victorious. Team effort was a factor to Davao's victory.
"The strategy is to be the team champion not just to win individual awards. Also, all our available players had played at least two rounds. So kailangan every round I need to field players whom I think will perform best against a specific opponent at the same time insert players as support," National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) regional director and Davao team captain James Infiesto told SunStar Davao via Facebook yesterday, November 1.
Davao's Harison Maamo (76 points) was only second to X-Men's Richielou Salcedo (86) in standard regulars while Davao's Aglipay Oberio (76) placed third in standard executive division behind Kutawatu's Bob Jones Liwagon (86) and X-Men's national master Levi Mercado (78).
In top chess 960 regulars, Maamo of Davao (75) clinched the runner-up honors anew as Zamboanga's NM Joey Florendo annexed the title while Davao's Oberio (86) and NM Jonathan Tan (79) finished second and third, respectively, in the executive class.
A total cash prize of P100,000 was at stake in the chessfest with the champion team bagging P25,000 while the next two placers received P20,000 and P15,000. Each of the top three teams also claimed P5,000 worth of groceries for their respective beneficiaries. The bottom three teams got P5,000 apiece.
All top five individual awardees pocketed P1,000, P700, P400, P200 and P200.
The Davao Chess Eagles was bannered by regulars international master (IM) Oliver Dimakiling, Fide master (FM) Austin Jacob Literatus, national masters Alex Lupian and Elwin Retanal, arena grand masters Henry Roger Lopez, Carl Zirex Sato, and Rowelyn Joy Acedo, Anthony Mosqueda, John Ray Batucan, Maamo, Jayson Salubre, Denzel Amar, Kenneth Tabada, Ruel Nuttal, Irwin Aton, Perkins Bayron, Vincent Umayan,and Mohammad Sacar.
Donning Davao's colors in the executives were NM Jonathan Tan, Lyndon Sombilon, Oberio, Jimzon Trangia, Arnel Nino Aton, Ariel Nino Aton, Alfred Moulic, Rhynan Arce, Engr. Napoleon Recososa, Reynaldo De Guzman, lawyers Jong Guevarra and Melzar Galicia, Homer Rotulo, Christopher Yap, Cipriano Magalso, Ramil Langamon, Dr. Marlon Sayson, Jr. and Engr. Allan Diez.