Naki Warriors clinch first win in PCAP Conference

CEBU CITY, Philippines— The Lapu-Lapu City Naki Warriors clinched their first victory on Saturday, October 9, 2021,  in the ongoing “open conference” of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Third Conference.

In one of their two scheduled matches on Saturday, the Naki Warriors grabbed a big win over the Pampanga Checkers, 15.5-5.5.

It would have been a complete shutout for the two Cebu-based teams if not for Lapu-Lapu City’s victory after the Toledo City Trojans were beaten in two matches.

Lapu-Lapu City was defeated by the San Juan Predators,5-16 before they won over Pampanga.

In the blitz round, Elwin Retanal, Women’s International Master (WIM), Bernadette Galas, International Arbiter (IA) Lincoln Yap, Ariel Joseph Abellana, and Anthony Makinano won their matches versus Erickson Costuna, Lexie Grace Hernandez, Louie Pablo, Gabrielle Nuqui, and Tiv Omangay respectively.

They finished the blitz round with a 5.5-1.5 final score, with Pampanga only winning a single match courtesy of Joseph Vergara, who defeated Duane Borgonia.

In the rapid competition, Retanal, Michael Joseph Pagaran, Abellana, Makinano, and Borgonia won their respective matches against Cortuna, Oshrie Jhames Reyes, Nuqui, Omangay and Vergara respectively.

In total, they won five matches worth two points each. Thus, they beat Pampanga,10-4, in the rapid competition, with the latter winning only two matches.

Hernandez defeated WIM Galas while Pablo bested IA Yap in the rapid match.

The win lifted the Naki Warriors from the bottom of the standings to the eighth spot in the southern division standings with a 1-3 (win-loss) slate and 32 total accumulated points.

Meanwhile, the Trojans remained winless after four games in the open conference. They are currently in 11th place, behind Palawan Queen’s Gambit, at the bottom of the standings.

In the first match, the Trojans lost to the Manila Indios,8-13, and the Pasig City King Pirates,5-16, in the second match.