CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Camarines Soaring Eagles and Cagayan de Oro-Misamis Oriental Chess Association completed the southern division’s playoff pairings after trouncing their respective opponents in the play-in tournament of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) All-Filipino Conference last Saturday, March 26, 2022.
The Soaring Eagles clinched the seventh seed in the playoffs after defeating the Cebu City Wizards, 16-5, while CDO-MisOr Chess Association edged the Palawan Queen’s Gambit twice, 10-11 and 14.5-6.5, for the eighth seed.
With that in mind, Camarines takes on the No. 2 seed Davao Chess Eagles in the first round of the playoffs or the quarterfinals on March 30, 2022 while CDO-MisOr takes on the top seed, Iloilo Kisela Knights in the other playoff pairing.
During the match, Camarines beat Cebu City in both the blitz and rapid round. In the rapid round, Camarines finished with a, 5-2, tally after International Master (IM) Idelfonso Datu, Walt Allen Talan, Ezraline Alvarez, National Master (NM) Carlo Lorena and NM Ronald Llavanes edged Arena Grand Master (AGM) Mark Mangubat, Joe Faunus Fernandez, Crystal Jumao-as, NM Mario Mangubat, and Isen Montero respectively.
Joel Pacuribot and Antonio Cabibil prevented a shutout for Cebu City after defeating Coellier Graspela and Patrick Ismael Credo respectively.
In the rapid round, IM Datu, Talan, Alvarez, NM Lorena, NM, and Llavanes won their respective matches against the same opponents while Graspela and Pacuribot had a draw to finish it with an 11-3 tally.
Cabibil was the lone winning woodpusher for Cebu City that won a match in the rapid round against Credo.
Cebu’s elimination means that only the Toledo City Trojans are the only remaining Cebu-based team in the tournament. The Trojans which qualified for the playoffs as the sixth seed will face the No.3 team, Zamboanga Sultans on March 30.
The rest of the southern division’s playoff pairing are Negros Kingsmen (4) and Surigao Fianchetto Checkmates (5).
On the other hand, Isabela Knight of Alexander and Rizal Batch Towers completed northern division’s playoff teams. This as, Isabela beats Cavite, 15.5-5.5, while Rizal trounced Quezon City Simba’s Tribe,13-8.
Rizal grabbed the eighth seed while Isabela for the seventh seed after their respective victories. Rizal will face the top seed Pasig City King Pirates (1) while Isabela locks horns with San Juan Predators (2).
The other playoff matches in the northern division are Caloocan (4) versus Cagayan Kings (5), and Laguna (3) versus Manila (6).
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