Cepca vs. Region 10 rematch

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE much awaited return match between the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) and their counterparts from Ozamis, reinforced by Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, will finally be realized this coming Jan. 19 as part of the Sinulog Celebration.

Venue this time is at Deep Blue in SM City and the format will be two games for each player over 20 boards. Time control will be at one hour per player, play to finish.

In full battle gear are the Region X team players: Atty. Quirino Sagario (NM), Rey Urbiztondo (bank manager), Dr. Rey Feliciano, Dr. Leonides Fernandez, Dr. Willi Maghanoy, Engr. Rocky Rocamora, businessmen Stephen Ty and Jun Tabarno, Alay Yap, Engrs. Ed Sanchez and Vic Ardiente.

More names will be published later as they complete their lineup.

Ready to rumble are the 12 monthly Cepca winners last year namely; Engr. Jun Olis, CIPDI general manager Mat Matuco, Engrs. Mandy Baria and Maggi Dionson of Aboitizland, retired military man Miguel Banebane, entrepreneurs Joe Atillo and Nato Casia, Nic Cuizon of Veco, professional musician Zaldy Tabanao, DENR‘s Percival Fiel, exporter Jojo Muralla and accountant Felix Balbona

Reinforcing the list are engineer and exporter Ben Dimaano, businessman Dante Arguelles, accountant Fred Sandalo, Attys. Richard Abangan and Jongjong Melendez and Cebu International School’s Malou Pagarigan, our lone female member.

The Big Bang. Like the universe, chess starts the new year with a big bang.

Two of the most prestigious and long running tournaments are the 50th edition of the Reggio Emilia and the 123rd Hastings tournament. Add to that the ACP Rapid World Cup and the “Mother of all chess tournaments” Wijk Aan Zee and you have a bellyfull of chess.

Zoltan Almasi of Hungary was the winner in Reggio, which was held from Dec. 29 to Jan. 8 with 10 GMs including Victor Korchnoi.

Hastings winner was Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine. The tournament was criticized for too many grandmaster draws. Competition was from Dec 28. to Jan. 6 among 103 participants.

The ACP Knockout Rapid World Cup in Odessa from Jan. 4 to 7 was full of action and featured some of the world’s top players. Teimour Radjabov, a 20- year-old lad from Azerbaijan took the Cup, beating Alexander Grischuk in the finals .

Participants were 1.) Peter Svidler (Russia, 2763), 2.) Alexie Shirov (Spain, 2755) 3.) Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2751), 4.) Boris Gelfand (Israel, 2737), 5.) Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2735), 6.) Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine, 2732), 7.) Dmitry Jakovenko (Russia, 2720), 8.) Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2711), 9.) Judit Polgar (Hungary, 2707), 10.) Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine, 2692), 11.) Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia, 2681), 12.) Anatoly Karpov (Russia, 2655).

We now have the lineup of Wijk Aan Zee(Corus) which includes all the big guns in the planet :1.) Viswanathan Anand (India, 2801), 2.) Ivanchuk, 3.) Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2785) 4.) Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 2769) 5.) Peter Leko (Hungary, 2755), 6.) Shakhryar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2752), 7.) Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, 2742), 8.) Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2741) 9.) Gelfand, 10.) Michael Adams (England, 2729), 11.) Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 2714), 12.) Polgar, 13.) Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine, 2681), 14.) Loek van Wely (Netherlands 2680).

Tournament will be held from Jan. 11 to 27 in the Netherlands in a full round robin.

CEPCA NEWS. The January competition of the club will be this Sunday at 1 p.m. in Deep Blue Café, SM City. Format will be seven rounds Swiss with a time control of seven minutes per player.

The Kiddies and Juniors will start their contest at 10:30 a.m.