CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Toledo City Trojans ended their five-game losing skid with an impressive double victory in the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Third Conference last Saturday, October 16, 2021.
The Trojans logged victories over the Pampanga Checkers and the Davao Executives Chess Society (DECS) to finally put themselves into the winning column.
In the first match, Toledo City defeated the Checkers, 11-10. The Cebu team then beat Davao in a nail-biting Armageddon tie-break match, 3-0, after settling for a tie at 10.5 at the end of regulation.
In ther blitz round showdown, Toledo City lost to Pampanga, 3-4, but Rommel Ganzon, Bonn Rainauld Tibod, and National Master (NM) Rogelio Enriquez Jr. won their matches versus Oshrie Jhames Reyes, Gabrielle Nuqui, and Tiv Omangay, respectively.
In the rapid round, the Trojans scored an 8-6 victory, winning four of seven matches worth two points each.
Ganzon, International Master (IM) Rico Mascariñas, NM Enriquez Jr., and Redentor Nailon defeated Reyes, Louie Pablo, Omangay, and Karl Richard Ballobar, respectively.
In their match against DECS, Toledo City almost swept the blitz round, 5.5-1.5.
However, DECS bounced back strong in the rapid round by winning, 9-5, which resulted to a 10.5 final score for both teams and forced the Armageddon tie-break match.
Toledo City swept all three matches in the Armageddon round courtesy of Ganzon, Natividad, and NM Enriquez Jr. against NM Oberio Aglipay, Arnel Niño Aton, and Reynaldo de Guzman, respectively.
With this development, Toledo City climbed three places up from 11th to eighth spot with a 2-5 record in the southern division standings.
Meanwhile, the Lapu-Lapu City Naki Warriors also ascended in the southern division standings after winning their two scheduled matches.
From seventh, they are now at sixth place with a 4-3 slate after they beat the Pengcheng Checkered Dragons of Shenzhen, China, 18-3, and the Olonggapo Rainbow Team 7, 12-9.
Allan Pason, Elwin Retanal, Women’s International Master (WIM) Bernadette Galas, International Arbiter (IA) Lincoln Yap, Bryle Arellano, Anthony Makinano, and Aldwin Daculan put on impressive performances in their respective matches against Pengcheng and Olonggapo.
/bmjo
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