ANAK NG MERALCO

Father and Son
Jose Raul Capablanca (3rd World Champion), Max Euwe (5th World Champion), Vassily Smyslov (7th World Champion) and Ruslan Ponomariov (16th World Champion) have one thing in common. They all learned chess from their fathers. Raul and Max learned the moves at the age of four (4), Vassily at six (6) and Ruslan at seven (7). The fatherly influence probably shaped them into what they grew up to; strict adherence to the basic laws of the game and ruthless in punishing the slightest mistake of their opponents. This father and son bonding could do wonders. As was said in The Guns of Navarone,"There's no guarantee but the theory is perfectly feasible".

MERALCO Chess Team
The late Atty. Jose Balaoing and the now retired Teodoro Aguila fathered the Meralco Chess Team that won an unprecedented five (5) consecutive championships in ESAP, a 2nd place finish in a National Championship and a 3rd place finish in a Commercial Tournament in the 1990's. The Meralco "Grandmasters" who are still with the Company are Gerry Cabellon (now a National Master) of Inspection, Danny Soque of Dasmarinas Sector, Darryl Mata of Sta. Rosa Sector, Eric Enriquez of Finance, Raymund Domingo, Norlito Bersamina & Albert Casiano of Branches, Ruben Lagrimas of Office Services, Ronald Mallari of Valenzuela Sector, Noel Pinano of CRMO and your author of Customer Process Management.

Anak ng Meralco
One of these "GMs" passed on the love of the game to his sons. The man is Norlito Bersamina of Pasay Extension Office whose eldest son Joshua plays for the UE Junior Varsity Team while his youngest son Paulo, who turned 6 years old last February, already plays like a wizard as shown in the featured game.

Paulo Bersamina vs Steven Fulchen
National Age Group Asian Qualifier
June 2004

1. e4 c5
Black's move signals the Sicilian Defence, the most popular defensive system nowadays. It originated from Italy and got its name from Greco in the 16th century.

2. Ne2
This strange looking move is played in less than 1% of the Sicilian Defence. It was popularized by the legendary Paul Keres of Estonia in the 1940's, hence called the Keres Variation and some opening books referred to it as Chameleon Variation.

In the 1958 Munich Olympiad, Walther of Switzerland tried the move against Mikhail Tal of USSR, who was nicknamed "The Magician" just like our Efren "Bata" Reyes. Living up to his reputation, Tal sacrificed a knight right on the 11th move and won!

In the 1967 "Beat Bobby Fischer" series sponsored by MERALCO, Fischer electrified the variation vs Renato Naranja (1-0) of the Philippines.

In the 1974 Nice Olympiad, Rosendo Balinas, our 2nd GM, "sent" the Keres move against Ciocaltea of Romania, Puhm of France and Najdorf of Argentina.

In the 1975 Melbourne Zonal, Balinas won with the Keres move vs Cornford of New Zealand (1-0) that became part of the longest winning streak for a Filipino in an international competion at 7 games (6 wins and 1 draw). The record is 93 games set by former World Champion Mikhail Tal.

In 2004, Nelson Mariano, aided by the Keres move, nailed his 2nd GM norm with a draw over Alexei Kuzmin in the Dubai Open. He completed the required norm and became our 5th Grandmaster with a win with the Keres move over Aung Thant Zin in the Bangkok ASEAN Masters.

Another strange line is the move 2. c3 known as the Alapin Variation popularized in 1898 by the Slavic master Simon Alapin. It is the pet variation of our Two Towers; Eugenio Torre and Rogelio Antonio, our country's 1st and 3rd GM, respectively.

Stranger is the knight move of 2. Nc3; referred to as the Closed Sicilian that Frank Sinatra may have inspired. It opened the lines for Antonio in knocking-off Kozak in Round 1 of the 1999 Las Vegas World Championship Elimination.

Of course, de rigueur is the move 2. Nf3 which was originally called as the King's Knight Variation. It is played in 81% of the Sicilian with a 35% winning average.

2. ... d6
Black refuses the Keres Variation which should continue with 2. ... Nf6 3. Nc3 d5.

3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6
Enter the Dragon ! The game transposed to the most direct counter-attacking scheme, the Dragon Variation. It got its name in 1901 from a Russian chess player and astronomer named Chotimirsky who noticed the apparent resemblance between the Dragon Constellation and the pawn configuration d6-e7-f7-g6-h7. No, it did not came from Bruce Lee nor Ramon Zamora.

However, the variation may have existed much much earlier in the Middle-Earth as aluded to by Gandalf, the Gray Wizard in the Fellowship of the Ring, who said, "If you were referring to the incident with the DRAGON, I was barely involved."

It debuted in the World Championship Match in 1909 where challenger David Janowsky was burned by the fire-breathing dragon of World Champion Emanuel Lasker in Paris. Lasker also used it twice in the 1910 World Championship Match against Schlechter.

It re-appeared in the 1958 Moscow Finals where World Champion Vassily Smyslov slayed the dragon of former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. And its power became a legend.

Its legend became myth until former World Champion Gary Kasparov rekindled its flame in the 1995 New York PCA Finals vs Viswanathan Anand.

In the 2001 Gausdal Classics, our Arianne Caoili rode on the Dragon to beat GM Hersvik, her first GM scalp.

Danny Soque, Bong Mallari and Ruben Lagrimas breeds this dragon in their repertoire. And Danny is a full-blooded Oragon.

6. Be3
Basically, these moves follows the First Rule of Chess; Sortez Les Pieces. Technically, the move is known as the Yugoslav Attack as in Anand vs Kasparov in 1995 New York, Kasparov vs Topalov in 1995 Amsterdam, Adams vs Tiviakov in Wijk aan Zee 1996 among others.

It is amazing to see kids follow the book lines; the summation of what is generally considered as best for both sides.

Other lines are 6. Be2 (Classical Variation) 6. Bb5+ (Korchnoi Variation), 6. f4 (Levinfish-Flohr Variation) and 6. g3 (Dragon Twin?).

6. ... Bg7 7. Qd2
This rarely played move, which has a 45% winning average, was played by Anand in the said 1995 PCA Finals.

However, the popular move is 7. f3 and is played 45% of the time with a winning average of 46%. In the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, Balinas won with this line vs Sardinha of Portugal.

7. ... Nc6 8. Nxc6
A rare continuation that Smyslov adopted in the 1958 Finals.

8. ... bxc6 9. Bh6 O-O 10. h3
Another World Champion's move! In one of the earliest Dragon sighting, the move was played right on the 6th move by World Champion Lasker against William Napier in the 1904 Cambridge Springs; said to be one of the most complicated game ever played.

10. ... Bb7 11. g4 c5 12. f3
This is the Yugoslav Attack, from here to eternity.

12. ... Re8 13. h4 Qb6 14. Rb1 Nd7 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. h5 Nf6 17. hxg6 fxg6 18. Qh6+
Start spreading the news!

18. ... Kg8 19. Bc4+ e6 20. f4 d5 21. e5 Nxg4 22. Qh7+
The old black magic!

22. ... Kf8 23. Qh8 Ke7 24. Rh7
And now, the end is near.

24. ... Kd8 25. Qg7 Nxe5 26. fxe5 Bc6 27. Nxd5 exd5 28. Bxd5 Qa5+ 29. Kd1 Qb6 30. Bxc6 Qxc6 31. c4 Re6 32. Rh8 Re8 33. Rh7 Qf3+ 34. Kc2 Qg2+ 35. Kb3 Rb8+ 36. Ka3 Qf3+ 37. b3 Qc6 38. Rd1+ Kc8 39. Rd7 Qa6+ 40. Kb2 Rb7 41. Rc7+ Kb8 42. Rxb7+ Ka8 43. Rxa7 Kb8 44. Qc7# 1-0.

Paulo wrote the record of this game in algebraic notation.

Dr. Jose Rizal was right! Ang kabataan ang pag-asa ng bayan.


Sources:
Lasker's Manual of Chess, Mikhail Tal's Best Games of Chess, Fine's The Ideas Behind The Chess Openings, Bobby Ang's Chess Piece series, Chess Asia's Olympiad Series, World Championship Matches, Batsford's Chess Openings and de Firmian's Modern Chess Openings.

For complaints and suggestions, please e-mail the author at rjsolcruz@meralco.com.ph.