CEBU CITY, Philippines— The Toledo City Trojans opened their campaign with a loss against Camarines Soaring Eagles in the All-Filipino Conference of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) on Saturday, January 22.
The Soaring Eagles finished their duel with a 12-9 tally to score the first blood in the biggest online chess tournament in the country.
Camarines performed greatly in the blitz round, ending with a 5-2 tally. The Toledo City Trojans managed to tie the rapid round, 7-7, but it wasn’t enough to get the victory.
The Trojans’ newest woodpusher, National Master (NM) Merben Roque of Toledo, who was assigned at board one, faltered in the blitz round versus Coelleir Graspela but managed to beat the latter in the rapid round.
NM Rogelio Enriquez Jr., Richard Natividad, Ronald Ganzon and Bonn Rainauld Tibod lost to Walt Allen Talan, Recarte Tiauson, Virgen Gil Ruaya, and NM Ronald Llavanes in the blitz round respectively.
Jinky Catulay and International Master (IM) Rico Mascariñas prevented the Trojans from a shutout loss in the blitz round by defeating Virgenie Ruaya and Raul Fernandez, respectively.
In the rapid round, the Trojans’ seven points came from NM Roque’s win against Graspela along with Catulay’s victory versus Ezraline Alvarez and IM Mascariñas edging Fernandez to contribute two points apiece. At the same time, Tibod had a draw against NM Llavanes to earn one point.
On the other hand, third conference champions, San Juan Predators, defeated the Caloocan Loadmanna Knights,12.5-8.5. The Predators scored 4.5-2.5 against Caloocan in the blitz round. They capped off their big win with an 8-6 score in the rapid round.
Meanwhile, the much-awaited debut of the Tacloban Vikings match has been rescheduled to another date. They were supposed to play against the RCM Cebu last Saturday.
Fellow debutee, Cagayan De Oro- Misamis Oriental Chess Association bowed down to Zamboanga Sultans,7-14.
Former champions Iloilo Kisela Knights and Laguna Heroes trounced their respective opponents. The Kisela Knights beat Palawan Queen’s Gambit,11.5-7.5, while the Heroes defeated the Olongapo Rainbow Team 7, 13-8.
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