CEBU CITY, Philippines—The San Juan Predators defeated the Iloilo Kisela Knights in the grand finals to rule the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) All-Filipino Conference on Saturday, April 9, 2022.
In their storied rivalry, the Predators won against Iloilo twice in their three meetings in PCAP’s grand finals.
In last year’s inaugural season’s second conference, Iloilo defeated San Juan, but the latter avenged themselves in the third conference grand finals.
In last Saturday’s online chess action, San Juan needed to defeat Iloilo via an Armageddon tie-breaker match, 2-1, after they tied the second set match in the regulation at 10.5 all. The first set match ended with San Juan winning, 16-5.
Meanwhile, Pasig City King Pirates finished third overall place by defeating Davao Chess Eagles, 13-8.
During the grand finals match, San Juan won both the blitz and rapid rounds in the first set. They finished the blitz round, 5-2, by grabbing four wins courtesy of Grand Master (GM) Oliver Barbosa, Women’s International Master (IM) Jan Jodilyn Fronda, IM Ricardo de Guzman, and FIDE Master (FM) Narquinden Reyes against Karl Victor Ochoa, Women’s FIDE Master (WFM) Cherry Ann Mejia, National Master (NM) Cesar Mariano, and NM John Michael Silvederio, respectively.
In the rapid round, San Juan clobbered Iloilo, 11-3, after GM Barbosa, WIM Fronda, IM Ricardo de Guzman, and Narquingel Reyes won their matches while their teammates had three draws. Each win in the rapid round was worth two points while a draw earned them one point.
In the second set, Iloilo fought back, tying both the rapid and blitz round. They finished the blitz round with a 3.5-all scores and went on finishing the rapid round with 7-all tally, to force the Armageddon tie-breaker round.
During the tie-breaker, GM Barbosa bested GM Antonio Rogelio Jr, in board three while FM Reyes edged Ochoa in board two to seal San Juan’s victory.
Iloilo’s NM Rolly Parondo Jr. defeated FM Nelson Mariano in board one.
The tournament fielded in 24 teams, including Cebu’s very own Toledo City Trojans and the Cebu City Wizards. The Trojans made it into the southern division semifinals while the Wizards didn’t make it to the playoffs.
/bmjo
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