Cepca elections today

THE Cebu executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) will elect today its officers and board of trustees for 2011-12 at 5:30 p.m. at the Kawayan Grill in Mabolo in front of Persimmon. Attendance is compulsory for all members.


Cepca,one of the oldest clubs in the country, was founded in 1990 by Chessmoso, together with Art Ynclino, Loy Miñoza, Alex Tolentino, Danny Pestaño, Nicnic Climaco and the late Sonny Sollano and Gerry Tomakin.



We will have a handicapping tournament after the elections. Format is five rounds Swiss and members will be divided into the A , B and C categories. Each group will have different time controls.


POKER. The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Cebu champion is Young-shin Im from Korea. Young-shin, who won P5,810,000, is the first female APPT winner.


Michael Fabiano from Australia took second place and P3,660,000 and Kim Gap Young from Korea took third place and P2,045,000.


A total of 236 players from 38 countries participated, including players from Mongolia, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden and Pakistan who invested P100,000 each for a shot at poker fame.


In total, 79 PokerStars Online Qualifiers and 18 PokerStars Cebu Satellite Winners played.


The event was held at Shangrila Mactan from Nov. 12 to 16.


CHESS. Forty-seven kids and 30 Lapu-Lapu City residents played in the Lapu-Lapu Fiesta tournament last weekend.


The winner in the Kiddies section was Allan Pason, who defeated Felix Shaun Babona in the last round in 39 moves of a Trompovsky opening to snare P2,000 plus trophy.


Second place went to Kyle Sevillano, who got P800 and trophy and the third placer was Diego Claro, who earned P600 and trophy.


In the open section, Michael Infante beat Ramil Resuera in 31 moves of a Sicilian to garner the champion’s prize of P3,000 plus trophy. Second placer was Peterson Sia, who had a better tiebreak over Amado Olea.


The tournament was sponsored by the Lapu-Lapu City Government headed by Mayor Paz Radaza. Tournament director was Jun Olis and arbiter was Tony Cabibil.


The Rose Pharmacy Chess King challenge will be held next month from Dec. 18 to 22 and will have two main categories: Open and Kiddies


There will be two sections in the Kiddies Categories: 12- and 15-Under.


Since the kiddies categories will be played in the last two days of the tournament, they may join the open Category eliminations. Tentative venue is the Mango Square Mall and the finals will be held at Deep Blue in SM.


The Open elimination stage will be a seven-round rapid Swiss to determine the top 16 players who will play a two-game knockout round.


The champion will pocket P20,000 and the runner-up P10,000. Losing semi-finalists and quarter finalists will get P4,000 each and the rest P500.


For further inquiries, contact Marvin Ruelan (09267352951) or Roger Abella (09102686890).


WESLEY SO. I am a little bit disappointed by the performance of our Boy Wonder in his last tournaments namely, Biel, Spice Cup and the Asian Games Rapid competition in Guangzhou,China.


He placed fifth in Biel and tied for third in the Spice Cup 2010. Most foreign observers were expecting him to do better.


Wesley is not playing as well as he should, considering that he is the strongest player in history at 14 years old.


When Magnus Carlsen, the world no.1 now, and Sergey Karjakin were at his age (Wesley just turned 17 last month), they were improving by leaps and bounds.


I believe that the National Chess Federation should hire a trainer not only for Wesley but also for the rest of our up and coming players.


(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)


Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on November 19, 2010.