Marlon Bernardino reports:
FILIPINO SALVADOR TIES THIRD IN LODY, ITALY CHESS FESTIVAL
INTERNATIONAL MASTER Roland Salvador of the Philippines finished in a tie for third to 10th placers in the just concluded of the 3 rd Lody International Chess Festival in Lody, Italy recently.
The 25-years-old Salvador, who is currently no. 11 in the RP-FIDE rating list who possessed an Elo Fide rating of 2452 notch 4.0 points after five games of play in the company of GM Mladen Palac and GM Robert Zelcic of Croatia, GM Vadim Malakhatko of Belarus, GM Aleksander Delchev of Bulgaria, GM Miroljub Lazic of Serbia and Montenegro, Woman GM Regina Pokorna of Slovakia and IM Sabino Brunello of Italy.
It shall be recalled that Salvador, a former Philippine Navy stalwart earned his second IM result in the last year's edition of 2nd Lody International Chess Festival after garnering six points in nine outings.
The Milan, Italy based Salvador who hails from Sapang Palay, Bulacan needs only one more GM result to join the elite group of Mark Paragua, Eugene Torre, Rogelio Antonio Jr., Nelson Mariano II, Buenaventura Villamayor and the late Rosendo Balinas.
Meanwhile, GM Jan Werle of the Netherlands and GM Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine finished identical 4.5 points apiece. The Dutch GM Werle took the championship trophy winning on tie break points against Ukrainian GM Fedorchuk.
Another Filipino entry International Master Rolly Martinez, also based in Milan, Italy and a native of Santiago City, Isabela finished in a tie for 11 th to 18th placers with 3.5 points along with seven others woodpushers in the Fide rated Open tournament which attracted 76 players and almost 200 players competed in 4 groups.
Extra Edition of The Weekender sent by Sir Manny Benitez:
SHELL YOUTH SERIES OFF TO FLYING START
Turqueza, Bernales top NCR qualifier
Q.M.C. CHESS PLAZA’S Mari Joseph “MJ” Turqueza, 14-year-old son of club president Gene Turqueza, and 13-year-old Christy Lamiel Bernales topped the first leg—National Capital Region—of the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships held over the weekend at SM Manila.
MJ, a junior student at Diliman Preparatory School, took the first prize in the Junior Division (20 years old and younger) after beating another top favorite, 2006 Shell Kiddies king and under-12 national champion Jan Emmanuel “Jem” Garcia, in the seventh and final round for a solo perfect score of 7.0 points out of seven games.
Christy, a sophomore at the University of the East high school, topped the Kiddies (14 years old and younger) with a near-perfect score of 6.5, winning on tiebreak over Narquingden Reyes of General Licerio Geronimo High School of Montalban, Rizal, and Jan Nigel Galan of Children’s Mary Immaculate College.
As a member of the QMC Chess Plaza Club’s youth team, MJ has won several prizes in past tournaments and was the top scorer in the match between the QMC squad and young members of the Meralco Chess Club earlier this year.
Young Turqueza also tied for the fourth to eighth prizes with four others in the National Juniors held last month.
A veteran of the Southeast Asian Zonal, Christy won a major prize in the Chess Caravan Non-Masters held at the QMC plaza on Easter Sunday.
Turqueza and his two Junior runners-up, Jayson Mercado, 17, of San Sebastian College, and Vic Neil Villanueva, 19, of the University of Sto. Tomas, will represent the NCR at the Shell National Grand Finals to be held also in Metro Manila on October 20-21.
Bernales, Reyes and Galan also qualified as NCR representatives for the Kiddies’ Grand Finals.
An early tournament leader along with Turqueza, Jem Garcia missed qualifying for the Grand Finals by just half a point because of his final-round loss to MJ.
Garcia landed the fourth place on tiebreak at the head of seven 6.0-pointers. With him were Richelieu Salcedo, Nathaniel Gravillo, Jayson Visca, James Bulicatin, Neil Bryan Javier and Luke Farre.
A similar situation arose in the Kiddies, with Walt Allen Talan of National University missing the boat by just half a point.
He took the fourth prize on tiebreak over six other kids—Franz Robert Grafil, Daniel Elijah Sanchez, Loren Brigham Laceste, Mikee Chalene Suede and Eugene Samonte.
Those who failed to qualify in the first leg may enter any of the next qualifying tournaments.
The second leg of the series—Northern Luzon—will be held on July 7-8 at the Brickstone Mall; in Tuguegarao, Cagayan and the third leg—Central Luzon—on July 21-22 at the City Mall in Dagupan in Pangasinan.
Other “stops” of the popular Shell series include Batangas for Southern Luzon on August 4-5; Iloilo City for Western Visayas on August 18-19; Cebu City for Central Visayas on September 1-2, Davao City for Northern Mindanao on September 15-16; and Zamboanga City for Southern Mindanao on September 29-30.
The NCR qualifier drew 229 players in the Juniors and 273 in the Kiddies for a total of 503 participants.
BATTLE OF THE CHAMPIONS’
Wesley beats ‘Dimak’ with a draw
BACOOR wonder boy Wesley So has once again demonstrated his superiority over other local players with an easy win—with a draw as Black in a sudden-death showdown—over his fellow finalist in Shell’s “Battle of the Champions,” IM Oliver Dimakiling, held Monday to Wednesday at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City.
The two former champions—Dimakiling, 26, in the 2000 Juniors and So, 13, in the 2003 Kiddies—fought to a 1-1 tie in a best-of-two rapid duel, extending it to a third encounter.
Playing Black and in a winning position, Wesley forced a draw by repetition of moves to claim a win under the rules of the final match.
By winning Shell’s inaugural “Battle of the Champions,” IM So has gained his third national title in just six months, an incredible feat no other Filipino player has achieved.
Already, Wesley wears three national crowns: the 2006-07 Pichay Cup National Open Champion, the 2007-08 National Junior Champion, and now Shell’s “Champion of Champions!”
Just recently, too, he swept off the boards all 18 opponents, kids and grownups alike, in a simultaneous exhibition at the Meralco headquarters on Ortigas Ave., Pasig City.
Wesley won his national open title only six months ago, in mid-December of 2006, and he did it against the strongest players in the country today, including GMs Joey Antonio, Mark Paragua and Nelson Mariano II, as well as top-rated IMs like two-time national open champion Darwin Laylo, former zonal champion Ronald Dableo and Dimakiling.
The Battle of Champions started with 21 participants. Absent wer GMs Paragua and Mariano along with IMs Julio Catalino Sadorra and Ronald Salvador are all abroad.
GM Paragua is in the United States where he is expected to take part in the $400,000 World Open’s main event later this week in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
On the foreign circuit…
Topalov gets his world title match
THE World Chess Federation (Fide) has granted former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria his request that he should challenge world champion Vladimir Kramnik next year if the Russian wins the world title series to be held in Mexico in September this year. Topalov will also challenge whoever wins this year’s World Cup.
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Alekseev, Kramnik lead in Dortmund
AEROFLOT champion Evgeny Alekseev and world champion Vladimir Kramnik led the Dortmund Sparkassen in Germany after two rounds with 1.5 points each. Alekseev outplayed two-time world junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan while Kramnik outclassed Boris Gelfand of Israel in the second round.
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Karjakin, 17, at helm of Aerosvit
TEENAGE Ukrainian superstar Sergey Karjakin kept his solo lead by holding with Black four-time Russian champion Peter Svidler in the sixth round of the Aerosvit Invitational Tournament in Foros, Ukraine. Karjakin seized the lead in the fifth round with a win against Alexei Shirov of Spain.
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Stellwagen in Dutch title series lead
YOUNG GM Daniel Stellwagen, 19, assumed solo leadership of the Dutch Championship with a 6.0-point score in the eighth round, followed half a point behind by GMs Erwin L’Ami, Jan Smeets and Ivan Sokolov. The national title series is being held in Hilversum, the Netherlands.
Samantha, 7, to compete in World Fest
UNDER-8 Asean champion Samantha Glo Revita is preparing for the World Youth Festival in Turkey in November, her father, engineer Samy Revilla, has told the GMANews.
The seven-year-old whiz kid from Pangasinan won the gold in Standard chess and the bronze in blitz in the Asean Age-Group Championships in Pattaya, Thailand.
Hey! I hate hearing sorry loss for Jem Garcia! I saw him play last year in Dasmarinas Cavite in a tournament sponsored by Dasmarinas Chess Association and man!, at a very young age, he sports a very competitive spirit! I saw him shed tears after losing in the latter rounds with some technicality against his opponent. He was winning but in time scramble which cost him the game.
This is also the tournament where Jude Emil Fronda (familiar? he's been around playing in small and big tourneys!) won both the junior and senior division!
Congratulations to you guys!
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