1st Pineda-Santos-Camer Three Division Rapid Chess Tournament

Last Sunday, September 13, 2009, RMHS, the alma mater of Asia`s First GM Eugene Torre was the venue of the 1st Pineda-Santos-Camer Three Division Rapid Chess Tournament. NM Marlon Bernardino is the main man organizer of the said event and it was attended by 229 participants (112 non-master, 86 kiddies and 31 womens players). GM Torre was the event guest speaker and Quezon City councilor’s Bayani Hipol, Vincent Belmonte and Edcel Lagman led the opening rites.

I joined the kiddies category and started my Round 1 in Board 30. I was paired with Gino Divino Cabual and Malcolm Kwok and won the games. I was paired also with Jeremiah Alfonso who settled for 1st runner with 6.5 games and that missing half point was because of our game which ended in a draw.

Board 2 in Round 5, Board 3 in Round 6 and finally climbed to Board 1 in Round 7 with Mc Dominique Lagula. Me having 5.1/2 points and Lagula with 6 points in the final round. It was a difficult game, with 15-15 minutes time and with lots of watchful eyes around us. I always got into panic time with this kind of atmosphere. I should learn to take control of the situation when i got into the same scenario again. I lost in the final round and my flag got down. But I already am a champion, my mother said, even if I lost in the final round.

Noteable happenings:
- Placed fourth runner up in the 14-Under Division and top school player from Adamson.
- Played in Board 1 in the final round.
- With only 1 loss because of under time control in the final round with FEU`s sophomore chess varsity Mc Dominique Lagula, Shell top finalist in Cagayan leg;
- and a draw game with another FEU`s chess varsity Jeremiah Alfonso also a Shell top finalist in NCR leg.
- beat Paul Robert Evangelista, another FEU varsity chess player.

Really, in chess games height or age does not matter.

Final ranking after round 7 (Kiddies Division)
Champion and runner-ups only

Rank Name Pts Bh
1 Lagula, Mc Dominique 7 31 Champion
2 Alfonso, Jeremiah 6.5 28.5 1st runner up
3 Barcelon, Byan 6 36 2nd runner up
4 Ruaya, Virgen Gil 6 33.5 3rd runner up
5 Samantila, Daryl Unix 5.5 35 4th runner up
6 Mejia, Giovanni 5.5 27.5 5th runner up
7 Cerrado, Jo Nikka 5 32 6th runner up
8 Javier, Collins 5 31 7th runner up
9 Cobsilen, Clifford 5 31 8th runner up
10 Paguagan, Nico Adriel 5 30 9th runner up
11 Alcantara, Michael 5 29 10th runner up

Thanks Kuya Marlon for the beautiful trophy. I should have 2, 1 for being the top Adamson player and for being the 4th runner up but instead I only got 1. But I think I got to received the tallest amongst the trophies and it came from Q.C. Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista.

So close Part 2, i thought... but this is on a higher category already. More practice and more studies, someday I can finally perfect it.