PICHAY MEMORIAL CUP: NOLTE

5TH PROSPERO PICHAY SR. MEMORIAL CUP CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

by: admin

posted on : Mon Jul 28 2008, 08:22PM

2nd seed IM Rolando Nolte lived up to his high billing by ruling the fifth Prospero Pichay Sr. Memorial chess tournament at the Surigao del Sur Polytechnic College here Saturday. Nolte, the highest-rated player here with an ELO of 2522, dumped NM Hamed Nouri in the 8th round and drew with GM Mark Paragua in the 9th and final round to cap his campaign in this four-day tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).
Nolte actually finished in a four-way tie for first place with GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. NM Reggie Olay and Paragua with similar scores of seven points out of a possible nine.

But the Quezon City-based campaigner clinched the title by virtue of higher tiebreak score over Antonio, Olay and Paragua. The four players , however, split the combined cash prizes for the top four places and pocketed P50,000 each. Antonio halved the point with Olay in the 8ht round and then trounced NM Mirabeau Maga in the 9th round to join the winners’ circle. Olay followed up his draw with Antonio by downing untitled Jay Bulicatin, while Paragua crushed last year’s winner IM Barlo Nadera in the 8th round before drawing with Nolte in the final round.
Nouri and Nadera dropped into another four-way tie for fifth to eighth places with 6.5 points. They each received P9,250.

With Nouri and Nadera were NM Alexander Lupian, who beat Vincent Umayan and NM Rusutm Tolenrino; and Jimmy Dano, who bested Ibaryu Adante and Abdullah Unding. Tied for ninth to 13 th places were Henry Lopez, Ben Polao, Bulicatin, Mga and Santiago Lumancas. They earned P3,800. The tournament was held for the fifth straight year in honor of the late father of NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay.