By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso
MAinz Chess Classic is a monster event of superlative proportions.
It is annually held in Mainz ,Germany and is a weeklong event from Aug. 13 to 20.
It consists of several tournaments; the Ordix Open, a traditional rapid chess won by David Navara outclassing 761 players including 188 GMs; FiNET Open, a chess960 rapid won by Victor Bologan against 250 participants. There was a four-way contest between Aronian, Anand, Kasimdzhanov and Bacrot in the Mainz with Aronian winning the FiNet chess960 Rapid and Anand snatching the renkeleasing Rapid.
Other tournaments are the Mini-Ordix Open for children, which was captured by Constantin Gobel; Mini-FiNet Open–chess960 for children that was snared by Anna Endress. There was also a 40-board simul by Vassily Ivanchuk and the Rapid chess960 computer championship won by Deep Shredder.
Chess960 or Fischer Random is a variant wherein the major pieces are not in their original positions.
Ordix, FiNet and Grenkeleasing were the major sponsors of the whole event.
Other winners in the Ordix Open were GM Vlastimir Hort in the Senior category, WGM Marie Sebag for Women, GM Igor Lysyj for Juniors and GM Parimarjan Negi for the 14-Under.
The fourth Prospero Pichay Sr. Memorial Open Competition in Cantilan, Surigao concluded the other week and was dominated by Cebuanos.
IM Barlo Nadera of Mandaue took solo first with 8.5/9 to win a cool P100,000.
Tied for second to fourth were IM Richard Bitoon Of Cebu, NM Mirabeau Maga of Davao and IM Manny Senador of Iloilo. The other winners from fifth to 10th were Oliver Dimakiling, Ernesto Fernandez, Rolando Nolte, Jimmy Dano, Nouri Hamed and Ronald Bancod.
The contest was notable because of the absence of the heavyweights (GMs Torre, Antonio, Paragua, Mariano) despite the attractive cash prizes. We can only assume that our GMs went kakak as the contest was Fide-rated and will affect their Elo rating if they don’t perform well.
The World Youth Under-16 Olympiad was held in Singapore last Aug. 4 to 12 and the Philippines had an excellent performance by placing third among 34 countries. We handed India its only loss although it captured first with a better tiebreak.
Wesley So had the most incredible result in the event with a 9.5/10 score for a performance rating of 2736! Other members were Victor Ochoa, Pascua Haridas and Robert Grafil.
USC CHES. The University of San Carlos Chemical Engineering Society celebrated its Golden Anniversary last Aug. 3 to 5.
A luncheon, film showing and fellowship night was held on the first day with a cowboy motif. There were games and entertainment, while fireworks lit the sky at the Talamban campus.
There was bowling on the second day at the SM Bowling Center followed by a dinner at the Casino Español. The Society’s board of trustees were elected and recognitions were given to the members who played big parts in the group’s existence. The three-day affair ended at the private resort of Bobby Gandionco.
My classmate in college, Steve Parrado, came all the way from Georgia, US, to attend the celebration. We had dinner after the event at Marco Polo together with another classmate, Angel Yap, and our teacher in Physical Chemistry, Elsa Roska, who went on to become a dean of the College of Engineering and Architecture. Elsa is still a beauty to behold despite the years.
CEPCA NEWS. Mike Banebane won the August competition last Sunday at SM City. Mandy Baria, Jun Olis and Joe Atillo tied for second to fourth, while Nic Cuizon was fifth.
As Mike and Mandy already qualified to the grand finals in December, Jun Olis will be the representative for August.
The Kiddies monthly tournament will be this Sunday, Aug. 26, at the Deep Blue Café in SM City starting at 10 a.m.
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