CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Toledo-Xignex Trojans bounced back from their back-to-back losses with two huge wins against northern division teams Wednesday in the ongoing Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Third Season First Conference.
The Trojans defeated the Mandaluyong Tigers, 12-9, in their first match, then crushed Quezon City Simba’s Tribe, 13-8, in the tournament’s inter-division phase.
The two wins improved the Trojans’ win-loss mark in the southern division to 11 wins with four losses, tied with the Davao Chess Eagles.
However, Toledo remained at the No. 3 spot with lower accumulated points of 181.5, against Davao’s 198.5.
The Negros Kingsmen remains the southern division’s top team with a 14-1 record.
Meanwhile, Quezon City’s loss nailed them to the bottom of the northern division rankings with a 2-13 record, while Mandaluyong is at the sixth spot with a 7-8 card.
Against Mandaluyong, the Trojans lost the blitz round, 2-5, but dominated the rapid round, 10-4.
Richard Natividad led the Trojans by winning the lone match in the blitz round against National Master (NM) Giovannie Mejia. He duplicated his win against Mejia in the rapid round.
In the rapid round, the Trojans won five matches.
International Master (IM) Kim Steven Yap upset Grandmaster (GM) Darwin Laylo to bounce back from losing to the latter in the blitz round.
Women’s IM Beverly Mendoza, IM Rico Mascarinas, and NM Elwin Retanal also won their matches in the rapid round to help the Trojans seal the win.
In their match against Quezon City, the Trojans won both the blitz and rapid rounds. They beat Simba’s Tribe, 5-2, in the blitz, and 8-6, in the rapid.
Natividad, again, led the Trojans with two wins against Freddie Taloboc in both rounds. /rcg
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Toledo-Xignex Trojans look to extend streak