Monday, October 26, 2009

GM PARAGUA: 1 vs 600

GM MARK PARAGUA TRIES TO BREAK THE GUINNESS SIMUL CHESS WORLD RECORD
DUBBED AS “1 V.S. 600: BEAT THE MARK”
BY: MARLON BERNARDINO

MARK PARAGUA, the first Filipino to reach super grandmaster status, aims to put the Philippines in the world chess map once again as he tries to break the Guinness simultaneous chess world record on December 27 to 28, 2009.

The two-day event will be held at the historic Ninoy Aquino Stadium or San Andres Gymnasium in Manila.

“The ultimate test for mind and body endurance dubbed as “1 vs. 600: Beat the MARK” will pit the young grandmaster against 600 players at the same time. There will also be 400 reserves for a total of 1,000 opposing players present during the event.” Said journalist Noli Sangil Cruz.

The current record is held by Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob, who faced 500 opponents simultaneously last August 13, 2009 at the Engelab Sports Complex in Tehran, Iran.

The Guinness World Record for the largest number of simultaneous games played in a single session was initially set in 1996 Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Anderson, who took on 310 opponents. This record was broken in 2004 by British IM Andrew Martin, author of many of our openings training DVDs. Martin played against 321 opponents, scoring 294 wins, 26 draws and 1 loss for a winning percentage of 95.64%. In August 2005 GM Susan Polgar played against 350 players simultaneously at the Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Finally, in February this year, Bulgarian GM Kiril Georgiev played a simultaneous exhibition against 360 opponents before broke by Morteza.

Paragua’s second/ trainer will be Asia’s First GM Eugene Torre and World Chess Cup bound GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr. in the event organized by Touch of Gold Enterprises in close cooperation with the Department of Tourism, Manila Sports Council (MASCO) Chairman Niño dela Cruz, City of Manila, Filway Marketings Inc. CEO/ President Hector "Chito" Tagaysay and Meralco Chess Club.

Wilfredo “Willie” Abalos of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) will head the list of International arbiters (IA) that includes Gene Poliarco, national masters Erwin Carag and Elias Lao along with RP six-time executive champion Dr. Jenny Mayor. For inquiries, you can call or text mobile no. 0919 849 3648 for complete details. MARLON BERNARDINO.

Friday, October 23, 2009

CHESS PIECE: REVISED YOUNGEST LIST

Business World
by Bobby Ang

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) officially created the title of International Grandmaster (GM) in 1950, and awarded it to 27 players. They were:

World Champion: (1) Mihail Botvinnik

Those who had qualified for (or been seeded into) the inaugural Candidates Tournament in 1950:

(2) Isaak Boleslavsky, (3) Igor Bondarevsky, (4) David Bronstein, (5) Max Euwe, (6) Reuben Fine (7) Salo Flohr, (8) Paul Keres, (9) Alexander Kotov, (10) Andreas Lilienthal, (11) Miguel Najdorf, (12) Samuel Reshevsky, (13) Vassily Smyslov, (14) Gideon St�hlberg, (15) Laszlo Szab�

Players still living who, though past their best in 1950, were recognized as having been world-class when at their peak:

(16) Ossip Bernstein, (17) Oldrich Duras, (18) Ernst Gr�nfeld, (19) Boris Kosti, (20) Grigory Levenfish, (21) Geza Mar�czy, (22) Jacques Mieses, (23) Viacheslav Ragozin, (24) Akiba Rubinstein, (25) Fritz Saemisch, (26) Saviely Tartakower, and (27) Milan Vidmar.

Even at this early stage politics reared its ugly head. Efim Bogoljubow (1889-1952), who had emigrated from the USSR to Germany and thus considered a "traitor" in the Soviet Union, was fully qualified for the title, having played two matches for the world championship against Alekhine, but the communist bloc managed to keep his name out of the list.

Two more names kept out of the original GM list: Fedor Bohatirchuk (never heard of him, huh?) and Peter Romanovsky. I will tell you a bit of their stories on Monday.

Anyway when the original list of 27 GMs came out the youngest was 26-year-old David Bronstein. The title of youngest ever in chess history was passed on to Tigran Petrosian when he made the title in 1952 at the age of 23, after qualifying for the Zurich Candidates’ Tournament.

Boris Spassky reset the record to 18 years old when he qualified from the 1955 Goteburg Interzonal to the Amsterdam Candidates, which ultimately Smyslov won.

The next record holder was Bobby Fischer — he qualified at the Portoroz Interzonal for the Candidates’ tournament and became a GM at the age of 15 years, six months and one day. This record last for 33 years until broken by Judit Polgar. Here is the latest "youngest ever GM in chess history" list:

1. Sergey Karjakin UKR 12 years, 7 months, 0 days

2. Parimarjan Negi IND 13 years, 4 months, 22 days

3. Magnus Carlsen NOR 13 years, 4 months, 27 days

4. Bu Xiangzhi CHN 13 years, 10 months, 13 days

5. Teimour Radjabov AZE 14 years, 0 months, 14 days

6. Ruslan Ponomariov UKR 14 years, 0 months, 17 days

7. Wesley So PHI 14 years, 1 month, 28 days

8. Etienne Bacrot FRA 14 years, 2 months, 0 days

9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 14 years, 4 months

10. Péter Lék� HUN 14 years, 4 months, 22 days

11. Hou Yifan CHN 14 years, 6 months, 16 days

12. Anish Giri NED 14 years, 7 months, 2 days

13. Yuriy Kuzubov UKR 14 years, 7 months, 12 days

14. Dariusz Swiercz POL 14 years, 7 months, 29 days

15. Nguyen Ngoc Truongson VIE 14 years, 10 months

16. Ray Robson USA 14 Years 11 Months 16 days

17. Fabiano Caruana ITA 14 years, 11 months, 20 days

18. Humpy Koneru IND 15 years, 1 month, 27 days

19. Hikaru Nakamura USA 15 years, 2 months, 19 days

20. Pentala Harikrishna IND 15 years, 3 months, 5 days

21. Judit Polgar HUN 15 years, 4 months, 28 days

22. Alejandro Ramirez CRC 15 years, 5 months, 14 days

23. Bobby Fischer USA 15 years, 6 months, 1 day

The youngest as of this date (not to be confused with youngest in history since, for example, Karjakin got the title at the age of 12, but is currently 19 years old) is the USA’s Ray Robson, who got his final norm from winning the 2009 Pan-American Under-20 Championship held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

We have excluded the Peruvian Jorge Cori Tello from our list above (14 years 2 months). Although Cori earned his final norm Marcel Duchamp Championship in Argentina, his rating is not yet 2500, so that makes him "only" a GM-elect without the full title yet.

Robson, born Oct. 25, 1994 (advanced happy birthday!) may be very young but in terms of chess years he is a veteran of international competition. His big jump was in 2007 — Robson earned the three norms required for the International Master title in only six weeks: the first at the 6th North American FIDE Invitational (2007) in Chicago, the second at the World Youth Chess Championship in Antalya, Turkey, and the third and final norm at the University of Texas at Dallas GM Invitational in Dallas.

Year 2009 was another quantum leap year. Robson won the US Junior Championship last July 16, 2009, becoming at the age of 14 one of the youngest junior champions of the USA ever. Last August he tied for first at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso, Norway for this first GM norm. Later on that same month he got the 2nd GM norm by winning the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie, Illinois. His final norm Montevideo caps off a brilliant and productive year for him.

I present to you his victory over GM Larry Christiansen in the recent US Chess Championship. Christiansen is known for his tactical skills, but today Robson outduels him.

Christiansen, Larry Mark (2588) — Robson, Ray (2465) [D31]

ch-USA Saint Louis USA (6), 13.05.2009

1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8.Ne2

It is more common for White to play 8.Be2 but that is precisely the reason why Christiansen avoids it. A lot of these young kids know mountains of theory, and so it would be good to confuse them with sidelines.

8...Na6 9.Bf8

In the 8.Be2 line the other bishop moves (9.Ba5, 9.Bd6 or 9.Bc3) are more popular, but in this version, with the knight on e2, putting the bishop to f8 is the main line.

9...Ne7

Please do not fall for 9...Kxf8?? 10.Qd8#

10.Bxg7 Nb4

There is nothing wrong with the normal 10...Rg8 11.Qd4 Qxd4 12.Bxd4 c5 13.Bf6 Nb4 14.Kd2 b6 15.Nf4 Bb7 Black has no problems and his pieces can coordinate easier. Papenin, N. (2391)-Kulago, A. (2095)/ Serpukhov 2004 0-1 (31).

11.Qd6

[11.Bxh8 has been analyzed to a draw after 11...e5 12.Qd6! (Alternatives are no good: 12.f3? Nc2+ 13.Kd2 Qe3+ 14.Kxc2 Bf5+ wins; 12.Bxe5?! Bf5! 13.Bc3 Nc2+ 14.Qxc2 Qxc2ƒ; 12.Bf6 Bf5! 13.f3 Qe3!) 12...Nc2+ 13.Kd2 Bf5 14.Ng3!? Qf4+ 15.Kc3 Nd5+! 16.cxd5 Qd4+ 17.Kb3 Nxa1+ 18.Ka3 Nc2+ 19.Kb3 Na1+ 1/2 Gomez Esteban, J. (2410)-Illescas Cordoba, M. (2615)/ Lisbon 1993]

11...Nc2+ 12.Kd2 Nxa1 13.Bxh8 Qc2+ 14.Ke1

[14.Ke3?? Nf5+]

14...Qxc4?!

The first new move, although there does not seem to be anything wrong with 14...e5 15.f3 (15.Bxe5 Be6 16.f3 Rd8 17.Qc7 Qd2+ 18.Kf2 Nc2 19.Bf4 Qe1+ 20.Kg1 Rd1 21.Qb8+ Nc8 22.Ng3 Ne3 23.Qe5 Qxf1+ 0-1 Kononenko,T (2379)-Korneev,O (2606)/ Seville 2007) 15...Qxb2 (15...Qb1+ 16.Kf2 Nc2 17.Bf6 Qe1+ 18.Kg1 Qb4 19.Bxe7 Qxd6 20.Bxd6 Be6 21.Nc3 1-0 Zaiatz,E (2401)-Tomilova,E (2263)/ Samara 2005) 16.Bxe5 Qb1+ 17.Kf2 Nf5 18.Qd2 Nc2 19.Bc7 Be6 20.Nc3 Qb2 21.Bd3 Nb4 22.Ke1 Nxd3+ 23.Qxd3 Rc8 24.Be5 Rd8 25.Qe2 Qc1+ 26.Kf2 Qxh1 27.Ne4 Rd1 0-1 Kharlov, A. (2638)-Arzumanian, G. (2424)/ Tula 2002]

15.Nc3 Qb4 16.Qd2 [16.Qxb4 Nc2+] 16...e5 17.Qc1

Position after 17.Qc1

Now Christiansen wins the knight. Or does he?

17...Bg4 18.f3?

[18.Qxa1 0-0-0 with threats against d1 and an attack on the h8-bishop. It looks to me like the best defence is 18.h3 followed by 19.g4]

18...Bxf3! 19.Bf6

[19.gxf3 Qh4+ 20.Ke2 Ng6 21.Qxa1 0-0-0 I am very pessimistic of White’s chances of surviving this attack]

19...Nd5 20.Bxe5 Qe7 21.gxf3 Qxe5+ 22.Kf2 Qd4+ 23.Kg3 Ne3 24.Bh3 Nac2 25.Nd1 f5 26.Nxe3 f4+ 27.Kf2 fxe3+ 28.Kg3 Qd6+ 29.f4 Qd3 30.Rd1 Qg6+ 31.Kf3 Qh5+ 32.Bg4 Qxh2 33.Rd6 Qf2+ 34.Ke4 e2 35.Bxe2 [35.Qxc2 e1Q+] 35...Qxe2+ 36.Kf5 Ke7 0-1

Exciting chess!

Reader comments/suggestions are urgently solicited. E-mail address is bangcpa@gmail.com

Monday, October 19, 2009

CABRIDO MEMORIAL RESULTS


From Chess Windows
by Rustic Bull

The 2007 Asean Age group silver medalist Jerad Docena nipped RP's reigning 12-Under Boys champion Paulo Bersamina in the championship round to rule the 1st NM Cabrido Memorial Chess Cup - which served to be a weekend crossroad of a number of the country's best and brightest in youth chess - held in Meralco, Ortigas last Sunday.

After the cross-over semifinal round, Docena and Bersamina met each other in the final round to engage in a hardly fought tactical battle in the endgame. The World Youth-bound Bersamina misfired in the course of the endgame and shook the hands of Docena to settle for first runner up.

Docena took home the gold medal plus P1,000 cash prize for ruling the tough event. Bersamina, on the other hand, was awarded with the silver medal and a P700 cash incentive.

In the fight for 2nd runner-up, RP's reigning Under-14 Girl champion and World Youth-bound Jean Karen Enriquez subdued 2009 National Age Group silver medalist Daryl Unix Samantila to bring home the bronze medal and P500 cash prize. Samantila also brought home P500.

Docena and Bersamina beat Enriquez and Samantila in the semifinal cross-over round.

Notably, the rising-star, Turkey-bound Karen topped the five-round eliminations with a superb performance of 4.5/5 before the cross-over semifinal round.

2009 Palarong Pambansa silver medalist Michelle Yaon, who was tied with four others with 4.0 points after five rounds, fell short of making it to the top four for the semis due to inferior tiebreak points. Michelle finished strong in 5th place after the elimination round.

After the five-round elimination, it was Karen Enriquez, Daryl Unix Samantila, Paulo Bersamina, Jerad Docena, Michelle Yaon, and Jerome Saltorio in that order.

10th Asean Age Group Chess championship bronze medalist Dennis Guttierez, Jr. settle for 13th place with 3.5 points.

Antipolo City Inter-School ruler Renato Cruz, Jr. and third-placer Virgen Gil Ruaya finished No.12 and No.11, respectively.

Category winners were Rhal Sol Cruz (Best Meralco Kiddie), Jolina Saltorio (Best Meralco Lady), and Jerome Saltorio (Best Meralco High School).

NM Andrew Vasquez served as the chief arbiter with the help of journalist NM Marlon Bernardino and International Arbiter NM Erwin Carag.

The highly competitive field was punctuated by the visit of chess academician GM Bong Villamayor who intently observed the games.

Meralco Chess Club president Rolly Sol Cruz and Mr. Lilet Bersamina were the prime movers behind this successful event which was put up to honor the late NM Cabrido who worked for and one of the pillars of MCC.

Cabrido is best remembered as the Filipino who taught world champion GM Viswanathan Anand to play chess when Anand's family was still based in the Manila in the 80’s.

FINAL RANKINGS
Champion - Jerad Docena
1st Runner-up - Paulo Bersamina
2nd Runner-up - Jean Karen Enriquez
3rd Runner-up - Daryl Unix Samantila

INTERIM RANKINGS AFTER THE FIVE-ROUND ELIMINATIONS

Rg. Name Pkte
1 Enriquez Karen 4½
2 Samantila Daryl Unix 4
3 Bersamina Paulo 4
4 Docena Jerad 4
5 Yaon Michelle 4
6 Saltorio Jerome 4
7 Cerrado Jo Nikka 3½
8 Viernes Tucker Howard 3½
9 De Jesus Normel 3
10 Saltorio Jefferson 3
11 Ruaya Virgen Gil 3
12 Cruz Renato 3
13 Gutierrez III Dennis 3
14 Docena Jesca 3
15 Gravillo Narciso 3
16 Monteza Jomarie 3
17 De Leon Luke Matthew 2½
18 Sol Cruz Rhal 2½
19 Gutierrez Dennis Jr 2
20 Alcantara Michael 2
21 Marcos Jett 2
22 Patindol Kenneth 2
23 Marcos JV 2
24 Abajon Jonalyn 2
25 Saltorio Jolina 2
26 Salazar John Emil 2
27 Gutierrez Mikaela 1½
28 Bermejo D3 1½
29 Espada Jenny 1½
30 Go Keith Stephanie 1
31 Go Patricia Stephanie 1
32 Soto Lyzza Marie 1
33 Serwelas Mike Gerald ½
34 Retonda Raymart Aaron ½

CABRIDO CUP: FINAL 4


CABRIDO GAMES







Tuesday, October 13, 2009

PAETE-MADE CHESS SET

CABRIDO MEMORIAL CUP

This kiddies invitational 1-day 5-round rapid event is scheduled on Sunday October 18, from 9:00 to 4:00 pm with an entry fee of P200. Prizes are :

Champion - P1,000 plus medal
2nd Place - 700 plus medal
3rd - 500 plus medal

Venue is Lopez Bldg Basement Canteen in MERALCO HQ in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Chief Arbiter is NM Andrew Vasquez.

Confirmed entries are Pau Bersamina, Darryl Samantila, Jerad & Jesca Docena, Dennis Gutierrez \Jr & III, Karen Enriquez, Renato Cruz, Nikka Cerrado and the MERALCO juniors.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

BALITA: GM GONZALEZ SIMUL

MANILA, Oct. 15 –Grandmaster(GM) Jayson Gonzales recently flashed his deadly old form for a magnificent performance in a rare simultaneous chess exhibition at the Basement Canteen, Lopez Bldg, in Meralco, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Gonzales, a member of the multi-titled Philippine Army chess team and head coach of Far Eastern University (FEU) played over 25 boards (7 from Paralympics, 8 from Brgy. Wesley and 10 from Meralco Chess Club) to wind up with a score of 21 wins-3 losses and one draw

According to International Master (IM) Marlon Bernardino and Meralco Chess Club president Rolly Sol Cruz, the lone winner was Brgy. Wesley's Pulsar and those who secured the draw were PARA's Rudy Sarmiento, Alexis Elinon and Meralco chess club member Joannah Saltorio of National University (NU).

Cruz added that the proceeds will go to the purchase of personal chess sets for the RP Paralympics players and for chess set donations to young chess players Darryl Samantila, Karen Enriquez, Vince Morte, and Julian Sabularse.

Meralco Chess Club has already organized three fund-raising chess simuls this year.

First with GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr., then with Asia’s First GM Eugene Torre, and most recently with GM Jayson for the benefit of blind and handicapped players and lately for the members of the local chess community affected by typhoon Ondoy.

GM Mark Paragua has agreed to do the fourth episode of the fund-raising simul in November after the Indoor Games in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, the Meralco Chess club will stage the first-ever NM Victor Cabrido Memorial kiddies invitational chess tournament on Sunday at the same venue.

Confirmed entries are Paulo Bersamina, Darryl Samantila, Jerad & Jesca Docena, Dennis Gutierrez Jr. & III, Karen Enriquez, Renato Cruz, Nikka Cerrado, Jett and JV Cadawas-Marcos.

For inquiries, please email: rjsolcruz@yahoo.com for complete details. (PNA) LOR

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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

PICHAY CUP: ROGELIO ANTONIO, JR 3RD

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Top seed GM Mikhail Mchedlishvili of Georgia edged fellow GM Ehsan Ghaemmaghami of Iran in the tiebreak to capture the title even as GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. finished a fighting third in the fifth Prospero Pichay Cup international chess championship at the LWUA Bldg. in Quezon City.

Mchedlishvili, the highest-rated player in the field with an ELO of 2613, outwitted GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in the final round to clinch the title with seven points on five wins and four draws.

Ghaemmaghami subdued GM Li Shilong of China to finish in a two-way tie for first place with Mchedlishvili with seven points.

Filipino GM Rogelio “Joey" Antonio, Jr., left, in a recent chess tournament. Jeff Venancio
But the sixth-seed player from Iran settled for runner-up honors due to a lower tiebreak score.

Mchedlishvili and Ghaemmaghami, however, went home US$4,500 richer each.

It was the second title in less than three weeks for Mchedlishvili, who also topped the Ravana GM tournament in a two-way tie with GM Vladimir Georgiev of Macedonia in Sri Lanka last month.

The smile was back on the faces of the Filipino chess fans, too.

Antonio outduelled GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia to clinch third place and emerge as the highest-placed Filipino player for the second straight time since a sixth-place finish in last week’s fourth President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Cup.

The multi-titled campaigner from Calapan, Oriental MIndoro, who earned a slot in the coming World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia next month, finished in a tie for third to fifth places with GMs Nguen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam and Zhang Zhong of Singapore with 6.5 points.

Nguyen whipped GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan while Zhang trounced GM Eugene Torre of the Philippines to catch up with Antonio.

Pichay Cup chess
Final standings:

(RP unless stated)

7 points – M. Mchedlishvili (Georgia), E. Ghaemmaghami (Iran)

6.5 R. Antonio, N. T. Nguyen (Vietnam), Z. Zhang (Singapore)

6 - D. Laylo, T.H. Dao (Vietnam), N. Das (India)

5.5 - T. Kotanjian (Armenia), A. Gupta (India), M. Paragua, A. Filippov (Uzbekistan), M. Gagunashvili (Georgia), S. Li (China), E. Torre, R. Dableo, A. Ismagambetov (Kazakhstan), R. Nolte, P. Kostenko (Kazakhstan), O. Dimakiling, F. Donguines

5 - Tirto (Indonesia), R. Andador, C. Garma, E. Senador, L. Lumancas, B. Villamayor
Antonio, however, finished ahead of Nguyen and Zhang in the tiebreak.

Asian Zone 3.3 champion GM Darwin Laylo of the Philippines battled GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia to a draw to finish in a tie for sixth to eighth places with GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam and GM Neelotpal Das of India with six points.

Dao outclassed giant-killer Lyndon Lumancas and Das outplayed IM Richard Bitoon in the other crucial encounter.

Overall, Laylo wound up sixth with a higher tiebreak score.

PGMA Cup champion GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan drew with GM-elect Ronald Dableo of the Philippines to lead a big group of players in ninth to 21st places with 5.5 points.

The bunch included Torre, Dableo, GM Mark Paragua, IM Rolando Nolte, IM Oliver Dimakiling and FM Ferdie Donguines.

Paragua drew with GM Pyotr Kostenko of Kazakhstan, Nolte toppled GM John Paul Gomez, Dimakiling humbled David Elorta and Donguines bested FM Haridas Pascua

GM JAYSON SIMUL



As previously announced by Rustic Bull of Malibay Chess Club, the fund-raising simul by GM Jayson was rescheduled this coming October 10 (Saturday 9am) at MERALCO in Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

The proceeds will be used for purchase of personal chess sets for the blind players of the PARA Team; Francis, Rudy, Gigi, Abe, Melchor, and hopefully, we can raise more than enough funds for the chess players whose house were flooded by Ondoy.

Please register here in the comments portion. This photo was taken in the on-going Pichay Cup.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

PICHAY CUP R4


As Typhoon Pepeng spared MM, I got the chance to take a peek at the on-going Pichay Cup sans my son who opted to sleep all day. We were actually planning to watch the GM play as early as the PGMA Cup but Typhoon Ondoy made it a fatal move last weekend.

As I entered the quiet playing hall, NM Gatus, who was one of the arbiter immediately welcomed me; mainly because he did a pair of mini-simuls at MERALCO (where I got a draw vs his Torre Attack by virtue of being the only one left in the 5-man/boy field and with us still equal in material) and he has coached my son Rhal once.

I surveyed the playing field and there were familiar faces;

1) IM Rolando Nolte who waved at me while waiting for NM Milagrosa to make his move. Nolts was recommended to us by GM Torre last June for the JPF Cup Simul with MERALCO jr and sr players plus the champions from Tahanan Walang Hagdanan.

2) NM Rhobel Legaspi nodded at me as he made his way to the rest room. The NM did a simul for us last Feb for the Olvida Memorial and again in March for the MERALCO Family Day.

3) NM Mirabeu Maga talked to me as he strolled around with a winning position. He played a simul for MERALCO Chess Club in January.

4) NM Efren Bagamasbad, a fellow UST alumnus, managed to smile at me even after his loss.

5) FM Chris Castellano answered me that their house in Brookside Cainta was submerged by the floods of Ondoy.

6) GM Bong Villamayor approached me as he was relaxing from a tight position vs NM Andador. Then NM Bong was the trainer of the MERALCO Chess Team and I cannot forget that I won a game from him with my pet French Defense - Arencibia Line, though on a 10-1 time control.

7) GM Joey tapped me on his way back to his board vs PGMA Champ Filipov. He started the fund-raising simul in MERALCO last Aug 1 where 6 out of 24 got a draw; including my son Rhal of LSGH GS Chess Team under NMs Carag and Bernardino.

8) GM Torre called out my name as he strolled away from the playing hall after winning, with a 2 pawn advantage, vs GM Dableo. Of course, El Eugenio did a 25 board simul in 2007 for the MERALCO Family Day and also recently, just this Sept 5, for the second fund-raising drive for the RP PARA Chess Team. BTW, I played in that one and lost my Q after I lost my "conciousness" after around 2 hours of play.

Wow! This is a great collection of friends and all because of our love for the game on the 64 squares and our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

So much for the intro!

The playing hall was extremely quiet and people whispers as they talk. I moved around to take photos, only to find out that my digicam was low on battery. I put the flash off and managed to take a few shots before the batteries finally resigned.

On Bd 1 was GM Michivili whose profile reminds me of Nicholas Cage and he was battling Darwin's Theory.

I saw IM Manny Senador playing and it brought back memories from the '80s; my game with him in a French Winnawer in Agora San Juan.

WNM Lamiel Bernales won her game vs FM Castellano. Lamiel played as a guest in our MACE Cup a few months ago which she topped despite the presence of MERALCO's top 3 players; Darryl Mata, Jay Dicen and Ricky Tan. That was the tournament where I logged a record 4 draws as I experimented with the Chinese style as pointed out by Prof. Bobby Ang - play solid and wait for your opponent to make a mistake.

I find the foreign GMs very friendly though I have not talked to any one of them. But I see them moving around and watching the other boards, even the lower boards, particularly GM Tigran. And if there are some post game analysis going on, he suggests a move or two.

These are great events and it is a pity that no live coverage from either GMA7 nor ABSCBN was there. Also, the place is not very accessible to the public and thre were just a handful of us spectators were there, and that includes Spawn2 of Barangay Wesley.

I wish I can go back again in this annual event.