CEBUANO chess players were treated to a one-of-a-kind chess fest as two chess masters held simultaneous games yesterday at the Cebu School of Chess on P. del Rosario St.
At the school lobby’s main hall, GM John Paul Gomez held a 40-board simultaneous match with intermediate players. But the event that got more attention was the eight-board simultaneous game between IM Kim Steven Yap and eight upstart kiddies players.
It was the second time the school hosted simultaneous matches with a GM, the first was with GM Oliver Barbosa last April, but it was the first blindfold event.
Although not literally blindfolded, IM Yap had his back to the eight players. Since he could not see the moves, these were dictated to him by three staff members.
One-by-one, Yap defeated his randomly selected opponents in the event that lasted for two hours.
“I had tough games. I never imagined these kids would give me a tough time. I had to be more imaginative in order to outwit these kids,” Yap told Sun.Star Cebu after completing an eight-board sweep.
First to fall was the Board 4 player 8-year-old Honey Kate Caes of the University of Cebu Main Campus who was checked-mate in about 25 minutes after the start of the games.
Second to fall was the 7-year old Dwayne Vin Abella of M. Zed Christian School of Guadalupe who was at the Board 7, while the last was the 10-year old Van Hadrian Mira of Labangon Elementary School, who was at the Board 2.
Mira gave Yap a tough time early but the Grade 4 pupil of Labangon Elementary School made two blunders that cost him his rooks and Yap cleaned up his opponent’s pieces until what was left was the King which was cornered at the lower left squares.
Yap was ready to offer a draw with Mira before the young aspirant made the blunders.
Before Mira fell, the other player who stood for nearly two hours with the master was Nicole Mae Mangubat, an 8-year old Grade 2 pupil of Tejero Elementary School.
Like Mira, Mangubat made good use of her pieces by positioning them to safety before she was drawn engrossed to the variety of moves of her mentor.
Mangubat was checked-mate one move before Mira’s final move.
Yap played the white pieces against the young proteges who had enrolled to become members of the school of chess.
“It was fun. We played against a master who was in a blindfold, and we were all beaten. But we really enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun,” said another eight-year old Paref-Springdale student Maximus Serbise, who was positioned at the Board 1.
The other players who took part of the blindfold event were the eight-year old Ebrel Albarico of Labangon Elementary School (Board 5), nine-year-old Ellysa Dianne Vallez also of Labangon ES (Board 6) and the eight-year-old old Julianna Mariel Ehido of St. Benedict Childhood Education Center.
Alabirco was the fifth to fall, Vallez was the third and Ehido was the fourth after she resigned after an hour and 30 minutes into the match.
Before the simultaneous games, GM Gomez, who was fresh from a stint to the World Chess Olympian in Tromso, Norway, gave chess lectures to the 40 hopefuls.
Yap and Gomez will be leaving this week to join a Fide-rated tournament in Malaysia. RCM