Local Updates from The Weekender

From The Weekender:

Dimakiling captures Iligan Open

TURIN Olympiad veteran IM Oliver Dimakiling captured the Iligan Open held recently in the capital city of Lanao del Norte, NCFP regional coordinator Rey Urbiztondo reports in his latest Chess News Today newsletter.

Dimakiling won on tiebreak over Maximo Ramos, a former junior champion who is making a comeback. They had 7.5 points each, and evenly shared the first and second prizes totaling P125,000.

The P211,500 event, which attracted 76 players from all over the country, took place from March 30 to April 1 at Lailai Gradens in Palao, Iligan City under the auspices of NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay and City Mayor Lawrence Cruz.

Ramos, who was born in Pagadian and now lives in Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, was national junior champion in the 1980s.

IM Richard Bitoon and NM Roger Sarip finished with 7.0 points each to share the third and fourth prizes.

Other winners were. Bengt Largo, NMs Emmanuel Senador and Levi Mercado, Jose Bryan and Jhonnel Balquin, in that order from fifth to ninth with 6.5 each, and NM Ernesto Fernandez in 10th place with 6.0.

Here is how Dimakiling (White) outclassed Ramos in a Queen’s Gambit Declined:

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Qc2 0–0 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e3 dxc4 8.Bxc4 c5 9.dxc5 Nxc5 10.0–0 a6 11.Rfd1 Qe8 12.a4 b6 13.Nd4 Bb7 14.Bf4 Rc8 15.Qe2 Kh8 16.Bg3 Ra8 17.f3 Ncd7 18.Rac1 Nh5 19.Bf2 g6 20.g4 Ng7 21.e4 Nc5 22.b3 Nd7 23.e5 f6 24.exf6 Bxf6 25.Ne4 e5 26.Nd6 Qb8 27.Ne6 Nxe6 28.Bxe6 Be7 29.Nxb7 Nf6 30.Bd7 Qxb7 31.Bc6 Qa7 32.Bxa8 Qxa8 33.g5 1-0

Macala captures non-masters

ABOUT 200 people flocked to the Quezon Memorial Circle Chess Plaza on Easter Sunday for the much-awaited Pichay Chess Caravan’s chess festival, launching a daylong “fiesta” that saw the victory of Luneta Chess Plaza habitue Allan Macala in the non-masters tournament that highlighted the visit.

A total of 163 players competed in the afternoon event, 53 of whom had earlier pitted their wits against four masters led by the Garma brothers, Chito, an International Master, and Edgar, a Fide master.

IM Garma scored a perfect 10 points from 10 games, while his brother had nine wins and one draw. FM Garma was held by Alcon John Datu, who later won the top kiddie player award in the non-masters.

NM Mario Rebano had 12 losses and eight wins against 20 players while NM Rudy Ibañez had eight losses, four wins and one draw against 13.

In the afternoon, a lively and highly instructive chess clinic was conducted by Asia’s first international master, Rodolfo Tan Cardoso, who lectured on the basics of tactical play based mainly on his own wins at the Olympiad and other events.

Earlier in a short talk at the opening ceremony, Cardoso had traced the development of chess in the country, starting from 1956 when the Philippines for the first time sent a four-man national team to the 12th Olympiad in Moscow.

He recalled that the team came back with the honor of being the highest scorer in Group C and with himself winning the silver medal on board 4 (see also “Pinoy Gems” series on page 7).

In her talk, Atty. Charito Planas, president of the Quezon City Parks Development Foundation, Inc., exhorted all chess players of voting age to vote wisely by picking candidates with a solid record of performance in their respective fields of endeavor.

Planas was introduced by QMC Plaza management committee member Alfredo V. Chay, board secretary of the QCPDF and Weekender circulation manager.

The Pichay Chess Caravan, which aims to promote chess in the grassroots under the leadership of five-time Executive champion Jenny Mayor, is named after the president of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero “Butch” Pichay, who is seeking a senatorial seat on the Team Unity Ticket.

Dr. Mayor, a dentist by profession, is an NCFP board director and heads its committee in charge of chess development in the grassroots.

The Chess Caravan’s non-masters tournament attracted more than 50 youngsters among its163 players. The children’s parents formed the bulk of the scores of spectators that thronged the plaza.

Macala, a Cebuano-speaking non-master, and unheralded Danilo Silva garnered 6.0 points each, with Macala winning on tiebreak.

They were followed by Mario Simborio and Michael Mallari in third and fourth with 5.5 each, followed by Andres Bautista, Gabriel Nagallo, Raymond Salcedo, Julius Sinangote, Stephen Manzanero, Samson Boniporeck, Roberto Torres, Gerardo Rodrigo and Randy Culangan with 5.0 apiece.

Nagallo won a special award as the top Quezon City player.

Bunched half a point behind them were Jose Lorica Jr., John Anthony Pedroso, Rogelio Seguban Jr., Alcon John Datu, Jaime Criste, Same Rile, Nelson Angeles, Christy Lamiel Bernales, Jupiter Samurai, Christopher Megino, Kathleen Ann Mendoza, Edgar Panganiban and Rene Domaycos.

The top lady award went to 13-year-old Christy Bernales, who played in the Southeast Asian Zonal in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, last January.

The QMC Plaza has formed a club and plans to hold at least one tournament a month.

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to put up a training class of beginners to be conducted by Caloocan instructor Juan Tapel Jr. during the summer vacation.

Among the first applicants is Adi Maronilla, the five-year-old prodigy who last year astounded the country by mental feats like naming all the constellations in the heavens and capital of most countries in the world, as well as identifying the flag of each nation.

The class will have eight training sessions to be held every Sunday.

Joey’s devastating defeat at hands of Loek
By Bobby Ang

In these modern times, you hardly ever see a Filipino game published in the mainstream chess literature, but it seems that GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. has achieved the negative immortality of losing a spectacular game to GM Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands during the 2006 Turin Olympiad.

The game was featured as the lead article in the very well-circulated Chessbase Magazine 113 on DVD complete with video, audio and GM commentary, is commented on in several chess magazines, and was awarded as the 2nd most important theoretical novelty of the period. I confess to be watching the game online during the chess Olympiad, and I thought GM Joey was winning until a few moves towards the end.

I guess I’ll have to show it to you now.

Van Wely,Loek (2655) - Antonio,Rogelio Jr (2539) [E37]
Turin Olympiad (Men) (11), 02.06.2006

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5!?

As pointed out by Van Wely, a few weeks before the Olympiad he had won a nice game with White against Joel Lautier in the Dutch League. Since this game took place after the rest day, alarm bells were ringing that GM Joey might have a theoretical novelty up his sleeve. However, Van Wely had studied the game himself and was quite confident of his preparation, so ...

5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Ne4 7.Qc2 c5 8.dxc5 Nc6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Nf3 Bf5

Now there is a threat of a discovered attack on the white queen with ...Ng3.

11.b4

White is daring Black to go into the complexities of 11...Ng3 12.Qb2 Nxh1 13.Qxg7, but GM Joey prefers another line of attack.

11...d4

This is the latest wrinkle, introduced by Anand, but after this game maybe we can already assess it as "exciting but dubious". The idea is that the discovered attack ...Ng3 now becomes a real possibility, since White no longer has the resource Qb2.

12.g4!? Bg6 13.Qc4 d3!?

Anand's move with which he took Kramnik by surprise. If White takes with the pawn 14.exd3 Qf6 attacks the rook and knight on f3 simultaneously. White could probably work his way through the complications and preserve the material balance, but his king position would become exposed. On the other hand if he takes with the queen then 14.Qxd3 Qf6 15.Rb1 Ne5! looks extremely dangerous for White.

14.Bg2!?

Loek is the first to vary from his game with Lautier. There the continuation was 14.Be3 Qf6 15.Rd1 dxe2? (If I know GM Joey he probably intended to play 15...0–0–0!? here) 16.Bxe2 0–0 17.0–0 Nc3 18.Rd6 Van Wely had the advantage which he pushed on for the victory. Van Wely,L (2647)-Lautier,J (2682)/ Enschede 2006 1–0 (48).

14...Qf6 15.Ra2 Ne5

Kramnik vs Anand from 1999 Dortmund continued 16.Qb5+ Nc3 17.Qc4 and they shook hands. Van Wely has seen something in the position.

After 15...Ne5
16.g5!

This is the big improvement. Loek commented that it was easy to find the improvement if you have a “silicon friend”. Indeed, if you analyze with Fritz then the text is its very first suggestion.

16...Nxc4 17.gxf6 Nc3?

GM Joey misassesses the position and continues to play for a win, whereas he should have been more conservative and continued 17...Nxf6 18.Nd2 Nxd2 19.Rxd2 0–0–0 where White has an edge, but it is still a game.

18.fxg7 Rg8 19.Ra1 0–0–0

Van Wely writes that his teammates were worried about the game, but everything was under control.

20.Bh3+! Kb8?

Better was 20...f5 although White keeps a big, possibly winning, edge with 21.e3 Rxg7 22.Nd2 Nxd2 23.Bxd2 Ne2 or (23...Ne4 24.Rg1 followed by f2-f3) 24.f3 followed by Kf2. GM Joey was suffering from a hallucination, which I will point out later.

21.Bf4+ Ka8 22.Rc1 dxe2
[22...Nxe2 23.Rxc4]
23.Rxc3

Now, realizing that there is no mate on d1, GM Joey resigns. 1–0

A devastating defeat!

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Notes on Sir Bobby's Article:

I know a story about super GM Loek Van Wely. He played someone at the MSN Zone some time around 2006, probably March or April against an unknown Special Ed Teacher from the Philippines. Their first 2 games went in favor of the super GM, in an ultra-super nerve wracking 5 minute blitz game. Then came the 3rd game which the teacher won with a checkmate. Then followed another seventeen games which saw the teacher beaten into dust and ashes. Ouch! Then came the revelation, because online games do not usually have the hi-how are you? - what's your name? and where you from? conversation, it happens at the end of the match, the clueless beaten up, lowly chess playing teacher asked, from where are you and what's your name? becuase you made me feel like this is the first time I played chess... came the reply, "Peter Van Loek, GM from the Netherlands, and you play well against a super GM!" Whaat? Yup! GO and check my name at chessbase!"

Lesson of the incident? Play online games as much as you can because you'll never know who'm you're gonna mess up with. Hahahahhaahah!

You know who that guy is?