By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso
HAMPERED by the absence of key players from Iligan and Cagayan de Oro due to fully booked flights and passages, the knights of region 10 team succumbed to the wiles of Cepca players by a rather wide margin of 9-15.
Winning both their games for Cepca were Mike Banebane, Zaldy Tabanao, Rene Casia and Engr. Mandy Baria. Dr. Rey Feliciano of Misamis also won both his games against Malou Pagarigan and Nicnic Climaco, while Rey Urbiztondo upset Engr. Ben Dimaano and drew Joe Atillo in board 1.
Dr. Leonidez Fernandez and Engr. Rocky Rocamora split their matches against Dante Arguelles and DENR’s Percival Fiel respectively. Exporter Jojo Muralla scored a win and a draw against Roy Roa while Alan Yap halved his matches against Boy Tumulak and Fred Sandalo.
Ozamis BPI manager Rey C. Urbiztondo trounced Roy Roa of Oroquieta City in the final round and emerged over-all champion in the Individual Sinulog Blitz Chess Championship.
Playing Black, Urbiztondo, the Region 10 NCFP coordinator, prevailed after 28 moves of a Sicilian Defense-Maroczy variation and finished with four wins and a draw in five outings.
Earlier, Urbiztondo toppled Jongjong Melendez, businessman Bong San Pascual, Engr. Jun Olis and drew with Engr. Rocky Rocamora.
Urbiztondo was second placer in the 1983 Cebu All Students Chess Championships to IM Enrico Sevillano and a gold medalist in the Cebu Amateur Athletic Association in 1984, when he represented CIT.
The Cebu Executives and Professional Chess Association would like to thank our visitors from Region 10 especially the two Reys of Misamis for initiating this wonderful match and we hope that they will be back next year.
GONZALEZ GETS THIRD GM NORM. Jason received the norm in the Asean Masters circuit in Tarakan Indonesia last week after placing second with 7.5 points, to get his third and final GM norm. All he has to do now is breach Elo 2500 to be officially called a grandmaster. He will be the third Pinoy grandmaster in five months during the term of NCFP president Prospero Pichay, after Darwin Laylo and Wesley So.
REST IN PEACE, BOBBY. My hero, Bobby Fischer, is dead. I have followed his career since the late 50’s, thrilled by his mastery of the game. When he defeated Boris Spassky in the “match of the century” in 1972, I was in Cagayan de Oro then and I remember that we celebrated the whole evening with one whole lechon and unlimited beer.
If there was to be a survey made on who the most eccentric man in this planet is, Bobby would be up there. However, I don’t agree with other journalists, who say that he was mad. I agree with the assessment of my good friend Art Ynclino, that there is a borderline between insanity and genius and Fischer was on the genius side, in the company of Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci.
A true child prodigy, jaded veterans at the Manhattan Chess Club realized early that they had a flawless 5-carat diamond in their midst. At 13, Bobby, in his own words, “just became good” and the whole chess world trembled.
Fischer reportedly left a fortune of about $3 million and I presume that it would go to his biological daughter, Jinky, whose mother is a Filipina or to his half sister Joan Targ or probably to Miyoko Watai. Most of it though, would be claimed by the IRS.
The chess world is always debating on who the greatest player of all time is.
Prime candidates are Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Emmanuel Lasker, Raul Capablanca and Fischer. When Fischer was asked, he replied “It would be nice to be modest, but I would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer.”
I will be writing more about Fischer in the future.
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