Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pestaño: Jerry Maratas is new Cepca president

Chessmoso
Thursday, September 19, 2013

THE Cebu Executives and Professionals Association (Cepca) elected its new set of officers for 2014-2015 last weekend at Handuraw Lahug.
Elected were Jerry Maratas as the new president; Dante Arguelles as the internal vice-president; Marvynne Guardina as external vice-president; Jun Olis as secretary; Jun Kidlat as treasurer; Ruel Hortelano as auditor and myself as the press relations officer.
Completing the nine-man board are Jojo Muralla and Mandy Baria.
Jerry, 34, is a consulting civil and structural engineer and one of the youngest presidents of Cepca in its 23 years of existence.
He owns Jemar Engineering Services, which specializes in structural analysis and design of medium and high-rise buildings.
He is also a faculty member of the University of San Carlos, civil engineering department and former reviewer, for 10 years, at the Besavilla Engineering Review Center.
Loving wife is Engr. Leiz Klade Maglasang from Consolacion and they have one son, Jecole Josef.
He started playing chess at a young age of 8. His father was his first coach.
He was an active chess player in the University of San Carlos as an intramural player up until he was a masteral student.
He came up with 10 initial plans for the club. These are:
1. Increase Club membership through advertisements and other means.
2. Hold fund-raising activities to increase financial status.
3. Proper documentation of all existing members.
4. Develop and maintain good relationship with other clubs by inviting them to
friendly matches.
5. Promote chess to kiddies by sponsoring tournaments for them.
6. Continue the monthly Cepca chess tournament.
7. Hold at least 2 major tournaments for the year namely Sinulog and Anniversary Open tournaments.
8. Help the less fortunate people by sponsoring charitable activities.
9. Stengthen camaraderie and ties among members thru regular weekly meetings.
10. Give recognition to deserving Cepca members who have contributed to the uplifting of the club,the chess community and the society in general.
Carlsen in command. Sinquenfield Cup Magnus Carlsen (2862) 22, of Norway, won the inaugural Sinquefield Cup, the strongest chess tournament in US history and the first-place finish netted him $70,000.
Carlsen won over three of the top-ranked chess players in the world, namely, Hikaru Nakamura(2772), 25, US No.1 and No.5 in the world; World No. 2 Levon Aronian (2813) 30, of Armenia; and US No. 2 Gata Kamsky (2741), 39. Nakamura earned $50,000 for second place, Aronian took home $30,000 and Kamsky netted $20,000 for his last-place finish.
The event is named after Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield. Rex was awarded the Gold Koltanowski award in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. The award is given to the person or persons who have done the most to promote chess in the US each year.
This will be the last tournament for Magnus Carlsen before his World Chess Championship 2013 match with Viswanathan Anand in Chennai, India.
Women Championship. It’s all over but the shouting. The Women’s World Chess Championship Match 2013 between the current World Champion Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and her challenger, Hou Yifan of China (former World Champion 2010-2012), started last September 10 in Taizhou ,China.
The prize fund for this match is 200,000 Euros and will be split between the players as follows: 60 percent for the winner and 40 percent to the loser if the match ends within the 10 regular games. In case the winner is decided by tie-break games, she
will receive 55 percent and loser 45 percent.
The winner of the 10-game match is the first player to reach 5.5 points or more. The match is practically over now as Hou is leading 4.5-1.5 after 6 games.
(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)

Friday, September 6, 2013

Pestaño: Kramnik wins World Cup

Chessmoso
Friday, September 6, 2013

VLADIMIR Kramnik defeated fellow Russian Dmitry Andreikin 2.5-1.5 in the championship match of the World Cup 2013 in Tromso, Norway. He won a hefty $120, 000. Andreikin consoled himself with $80,000, the biggest prize of his career.
The four final games against Andreikin started the best possible way for Kramnik with a victory in Game 1, draws in Games 2 and 3, and a win in Game 4 to equalize. But Andreiken never stood a chance and was in fact losing so he offered a draw.
In Round1, Kramnik easily defeated Gillan Bwalya of Zambia. In Round 2, he outlasted his compatriot Mikhail Kobalia after rapid tiebreaks. In Round 3, Kramnik went through tiebreaks again and defeated Alexander Areshchenko, 3-1, in the rapid games. The legendary Vassily Ivanchuk lost the classical match 1, 5-0, 5 in Round 4 , while another Ukrainian Anton Korobov had the same fate in the quarterfinals.
In the semifinal, Kramnik met fierce resistance from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and prevailed only after rapid tiebreaks.
Held every two years, the World Cup, which attracted 128 playrse, is part of the World Championship cycle and follows a knockout format. The winner and the runner up will qualify for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. Among those who played were Pinoy GMs Wesley So, Mark Paragua and Oliver Barbosa. Wesley got eliminated in the second round by Evgeny Tomashevsky, while Mark and Oliver went home after the first round.
The Fide Grand Prix is a series of six tournaments that forms the other part of the qualification cycle for the 2014 World Championship.
With only one leg left, Veselin Topalov has already qualified for the 2014 Candidates and will be joined by one of these three players—Shakriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk and Fabiano Caruana.
The other players in the 2014 Candidates Tournament will be the loser of the world Championship 2013 match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen and the next two highest rated, who played in the World Cup 2013 and the Grand Prix 2012-13 namely Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin. There will also be one organizer nominee and must have a rating of at least 2725.
The 2013 World Championship between Anand and Carlsen will take place in the hotel Hyatt Regency in Chennai, India on November. Twelve games are scheduled, with one per day with rest days after Games 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 11.
Should the match be tied after the 12th game on Nov. 24, tie-break games will be played on the 26th.
There is a big age difference between the two. Anand is 43 years old, while Carlsen is only 22 and will be the youngest champion in history if he wins.
Carlsen won the 2013 Candidates match to qualify against Anand. The 2013 field included Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Vassily Ivanchuk, Boris Gelfand, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik Teimour Radjabov and Carlsen.
From 2005 to 2013, Anand and Carlsen played 29 games against each other at classical time controls. Anand won six, Carlsen won three, and 20 were drawn.
Total prize fund for this match is $2.55 million of which.
Cepca. We will have an election of the new set of officers for 2014-2015. Venue is at Handuraw Pizza in Lahug (near UP) at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 15. Attendance is compulsory. Monthly tournament follows.
Our 23rd anniversary Open tournament will be on September 28-29. Early sponsors are Handuraw Pizza, lawyer Gino Tequillo, an old friend, Jerry Maratas, Businessmen Eli Berciles ,Nato Casia,Engr. John Velarde and Honorary member Kelly Uy of Cifya.
(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)