Start from scratch

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

The impasse at the cancelled tryouts for the RP Men’s chess team to the Southeast Asian Games has reached an embarrassing situation.

Embarrassing to the players, embarrassing to the officials of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and embarrassing to our Grandmasters Eugene Torre, Joey Antonio and Nelson Mariano II.

It would have been avoided if the ground rules were laid down as early as last year.

GMs Antonio and Mariano II arrived late as they participated in the World Open in Minneapolis, where they made good scores.

Apparently, they informed National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Go Teng Kok they would be late as they had problems with their flights. Their opponents, John Gomez and Ronald Dableo, are insisting they won by default.

Dableo said he also played in Minneapolis and he arrived on time.

In Eugene’s case, he has requested that he be exempted from the eliminations because of his stature. He has been a member of the Philippine team to the Olympiad since 1974 and I think that this is a world record (15 Olympiads). This is aside from the fact that his performance has always been very good, considering that he has been playing Board 1 all the time. Still for the sake of good sportsmanship and to raise the morale of the rest of the players, Eugene should play in the eliminations.

So let the Men’s finals start again – from scratch.

Therese Gonzales still has good chances of qualifying for the Women’s team. She and Richard Bitoon are the only Cebuanos vying for a berth in the Games.

SCRABBLING GENIUS. Iloilo’s scrabbling genius Odette Rio ruled the Baguio Scrabble Tournament recently at the Baguio Country Club, beating Ronald Credo in the finals. It was a closely fought match with Rio winning with a 441-394 score.

“I wasn’t confident I would win that one. I usually have problems in the end game,” says Rio, recalling his loss to Bonnie Macala in 2001 with the winner going to Las Vegas for the worlds.

Unfortunately, the Marawi City-native failed to get a visa to the United States in the aftermath of 9/11.

This is her second win in a row. She had 12 wins against four losses and a spread of 762 points to win the P10,000 top purse and trophy. Credo won P6,000 and also a trophy. “I’m having troubles every time I face Odette. I haven’t won against her,” admitted Credo.

“I have so much respect for the lady. I know that she is our very best chance to win the world title if Philippine scrabble can just get its act together.”

The World Scrabble Championship will be held in London this November, with the Philippines allowed three representatives.

Thanks to Reynante de la Cerna for this bit of scrabble updates. Nante is one of the favorites to go to London.

CEPCA. The June tournament of the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Stella Maris Seafarers Center at Pier 4. Format is five-round Swiss with time handicaps depending upon the members’ level of play.

Among the favorites to win this month’s tournament are Jongjong Melendez, Pepe Gador, Maggi Dionson, Mandy Baria, Vic Sepulveda and Felix Balbona.

The nice thing about participating in a Cepca tournament is that almost everybody has the same playing strength, and with the handicapping format, anybody can win, even the Class C players.

I received a nice e-mail from Ed Mayol, whom I featured last week as one of the chess-playing lawyers in Cebu. It seemed that I made a mistake by describing him as also a geodetic engineer as most of his cases involve land titles, land disputes and land registration applications. He is also a certified public accountant. It is his brother, Rolando, who is a geodetic engineer.

Ed mentioned that there is another chess-playing lawyer, Julius Hilario Baril, and also I might add Jorge Gabriente, who inquired about being a Cepca member a month ago.

Another potential member is an architect, Jeffrey Solis, who has expressed his intention to join this month’s tournament.