Against a Mexican

When playing is all that matters, nothing can stop you from winning. These are the three games I won against my very strong, master-strength opponent. We played thirteen games and the score was 10-3, in his favor. I wanted to quit and log-off after when he gave me a lessons after each lesson, five consecutive wins for him and one for me.

With white pieces:

 

Then with black:

Full Moon November 2012

Tonight my kids went to their lolo's house, a few blocks away from our place, and watched the lunar eclipse. They were equipped with camera phones, iTouch and a bottle of anti-mosquito bites called Citronela. And they're back now with a lot of stories, pictures and mosquito bites. They went on the roofdeck but still managed to be bitten by these pesky mosquitoes.

And while they were away, I played some games over at ChessCube. Here's one interesting h-file, ala-back rank mate:

 

And since the tide is high and the lunatics are out, here is one event we don't want to see happening. The future of the people involved are definitely bleak and the victim's family are going to have Christmas with sore eyes and heavy hearts. The death of the US Marine, a Bel-Air Makati resident, in the hands of the five rich kids, was caught on closed-circuit television:



Judgement?

Though shall not kill.

And if you are a foreigner in a foreign land, respect the locals!

From Winning to Whining

Remember our post "Complete Games: NCAA Chess Tournament 2012"? In it I shared the link where you can get a copy of the games courtesy of Bobby Ang.  In his article he said the following:

"College of St. Benilde-La Salle Greenhills was the favorite, but it failed badly and finished in 6th place. The La Salle aministration should seriously consider shaking up the team -- how can it be that they forfeited 15 games?

I was reminded of this post when I stumbled upon the blogs of NM Erwin Carag. Man that was a lot! Erwin was the coach of CSB-LSGH Junior Chess team when they won a championship. But a year after they won the NCAA crown, he left LSGH and rumor has it, t'was a bitter (and loud shouting match) parting.

Sad indeed!

The last time I saw and talked to Erwin was in 2010 at the 1st National Press Club Chess Tournament. Dubbed as "Massacre in November", I was fortunate enough to have played with fellow NPC members. When asked about the LSGH incident, he was man enough not to badmouth the institution that he helped to win a title.

Whatever happened to Erwin? I'm sure he still coaches players and teams and helping them achieve success in the field laden with 64 squares. I don't really know where he is now specifically.

But I'm sure the call of Bobby Ang to look into the line-up and probably the group behind each varsity team called alumni is a wake-up call. How can you forfeit 15 games on the NCAA level?

This is serious!

And for sure chess parents will only be happy to bring their precious chess children into the Green compound with scholarship and a supportive environment aimed at a truly wholistic education.

Instead of forfeiting games, why not work as a team including parents and alumni, with the players and coaches and get back to winning?

This ain't easy and this will take time. But its all worth it. I hope they get back to winning.

Shake it up or forget winning.

Playing to Survive

This game I played over at ChessCube is something I can never be proud of. It was a 15-minute game that I was forced to play when all I wanted was to play 1-minute games.

It ended in a draw after a 3-fold repetition but I had plenty of time with 8 minutes and 16 seconds against my opponent's 1 minute and 31 seconds. This game shows a lot of things about the fundamentals of chess and one of which is that you have to learn your openings. I played a bad opening. Then I played carelessly. Then I just played on to survive. Then I thought my opponent didn't know what to do with his advantage until I was able to keep my King in a safe place and allow my one-Queen demolition team do the wreck. Until my opponent went for the draw when his time was dwindling down.


So here is the game:

Tenement in Taguig City

I was at the Tenement Elementary School today and helped a bit in the Feeding Program of the school with some of my students and a colleague.

This is DEPED's central elementary school in Taguig City and it boasts of thirty-six classes per level from k to 6 and is the most populous in the entire city.

So what do we feed the children?

Champorado with Carnation Evap!

And some snaps I did while I was with my eight -graders. Our unit for the second term is Buhay sa Syudad at Buhay sa Baryo. We have been discussing the first part which is Buhay sa Syudad and I asked my students to create a photo where it shows city living. These two are mine:

And tomorrow is a PTC day or Parent-Teacher Conference.

Mavs Terrorizes Lakers 2012

Obviously, winning a game in the opening of the NBA season takes more than putting four all-stars, all offensive-minded players in the same team. It was a nightmare for the newly-revamped line-up for Lakers with the addition of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash during the pre-season. With Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol getting in the team plus the two all-stars, they are really strong, on paper.

Do you remember the Lakers line-up in 2004 NBA Season? Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Shaq and Kobe in the same team. They didn't make it and poor Malone and Payton had to end their NBA careers without any championship ring.

And the October 30, 2012 NBA game between Dallas Mavericks and LA Lakers was a de javu:

Complete Games: NCAA Chess Tournament 2012

We now have the complete games of NCAA Chess Tournament for the year 2012. Thanks to Bobby Ang of Business World Online, he generously offers his readers PGN copy of the NCAA Chess tournament.

Anyone wishing to receive a copy may leave their email addresses on my comment box or check out Bobby Ang's Chess Piece at Business World Online.

Interview with GM Susan Polgar 2012

Here is an interview with GM Susan Polgar and Lisa Suhay on WPR Kathleen Dunn Show about the various aspects and benefits of chess: