LWUA camed through with back-toback victories in Inter-province chess

KALIBO, Aklan – Local Water Utilities Administration-A  camed through  with back-to-back victories to vault into the solo lead after the eighth and penultimare round in the 2010 National Inter-Province chess team championship at the Cabagnot Training Center  In Old Buswang here Thursday.

GM John Paul Gomez  struck hardest when they mattered most to lead the fifth-seeded Quezon City-based team to an eight-round total of 13 points, a full point ahead of erstwhile solo leader Rizal Province and  pre-tournament favoirte Tagaytay with only one round remaining.
Gomez, one of  two GMs entered in  the five-day competition,  outdueled Alcon John Datu to lead LWUA-A to a smashing 3-1 win over sister team LWUA-B in the seventh round late Wednesday and then whipped Francis Jocson in LWUA-A’s 3-1 triumph over Capiz  in the eighth round.

Merben Roque and Jayson Salubre provided the other two victories for LWUA-A, winning both their matches against LWU-A and Capiz.

Roque trounced  Garry Garcia of LWUA-B and Francisco Lamayo of Capiz, while Salubre downed Ilann Perez of LWUA-B and  Anthony Arcangeles of Capiz.

Third seed Rizal  dropped a 1.5-2.5 decision to top seed Boracay-A in the seventh round  but came back strong to sweep Palawan, 4-0, the following round.

IM Oliver Barbosa settled for a draw with  comebacking IM Idelfonso Datu of Boracay, but Ivan Glil Biag lost to Horizon Villanueva and Gary Legaspi bowed to Carlito La Vega.
Jose Aquino was the lone winner for Rizal when he beat Rommel Ganzon of Boracay.
Barbosa,, Aquino, Biag and Arnel Pinero all won their matches against  their Palawan counterparts.

Not to be outdone was Tagaytay, headed by GM Darwin Laylo and Roel Abelgas, which crushed DAR-Lanao dle Sur, 3.5-.5, in the seventh round and Boracay, 2.5-1.5, in the eighth round.

Boracay-A dropped into a three-way tie for fourth to sixth places with Laguna and Makati with 11 points based on the scoring system which gives two points for a win, one point for a draw and zero for a loss.

Laguna, bannered by IM Emmanuel Senador and Rodolfo Panopio, crushed Iloilo Province, 3-1, and edged Makati,2.5-1.5.

Makati, led by David Elorta and Edsel Montoya, humbled  Negros, 2.5-1.5, before losing to Laguna, 1.5-2.5.
In solo seventh place was LWUA-B , 3.5-.5 winner over Negros in the eighth  round.

A total of 24 teams from  Luzon, Visayas and Mindano are seeing action in the annual competition being organized by the National Chess  Federation of the Philippines (NCFP), headed by chairman/president Prospero “Butch” Pichay, in cooperation with the Aklan provincial government, thru Gov. Carlito Marquez and Congressman Florencio Miraflores.

NCFP executive/events director Willie Abalos said the champion  will pocket the lion’s share of  P100,000, trophy  and  gold medals for the members.

The runner-up  will receive   P70,000 , trophy and  silver medals,  while the third placer will earn P50,000, trophy and bronze  medals.

Cash prizes will  also be given to  the  fourth placer  (P30,000),  fifth  placer  (P20,000), sixth  placer (P10,000),  seventh placer (P9,000),  eighth placer P8,000,  ninth placer (P7,000) and 10 th placer (6,000).
Aklan provincial sports coordinator Wilfredo Neri  serves as  the supervising arbiter, assisted by Patrick Lee, Levy Gaac, Ralph Caluya and Edmon Prado.

BY: Marlon Bernardino