SENIOR Police Officer 4 (SPO4) Ruel Hortelano won the June edition of the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (CEPCA) monthly qualifying tournament title last Sunday at the Knight’s Attack Cafe in Robinsons Galleria Cebu.
Hortelano finished the five-round Swiss system event with 4.0 points tied with Jonas Bajo but had a higher tie-break score of 14.5 against the Bajo’s 11 to bag the monthly title. Bajo settled for second place.
Hortelano beat Henry Cariat, Mario Bustillo and Joe Atillo in the first three rounds. He lost to Eddie Flores in the fourth then beat Cristy Cabuncag in the final round.
Flores (3.5), Jeremy Rose Bajo (3.5) and Richard Ouano (3.0) completed the top five finishers.
The June monthly tournament was sponsored by US-based Cepcan Dr. Alex C. Olis and Engineer Paolo S. Olis of Mosaic Corporation.
Other monthly qualifiers are Adrian Paraiso (January), Bustillo (February), Jun Kidlat (March), Percival Fiel (April) and John Velarde (May).