Jervy Villarin (left) with his coach, NM Rogelio Enriquez Jr. during the awarding. | Contributed photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Jervy Villarin emerged the best woodpusher in the IntChess Asia Youth Championships at the City Mall on Sunday, September 17, 2023.
Villarin, a varsity woodpusher of the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) nearly had a perfect campaign after finishing with 8.0 points in the nine-round competition.
Villarin, who started as 128th in the rankings, didn’t just earn the champion’s trophy, but also walked away with the P10,000 purse.
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Rey Gealon Chess Tournament
He joined his head coach, National Master (NM) Rogelio Enriquez Jr., on the winning side as the latter recently lorded the inaugural Councilor Rey Gealon Chess Tournament last September 10, 2023.
More than 130 young woodpushers competed in the competition organized by the Cebu School of Chess.
During the competition, Villarin started his campaign with a six-game winning streak. He defeated Duane Gabriel Esmoso, Danika Dakay, Luke Basillote, and Lennox Samson in the first four rounds.
He went on staging huge upsets by defeating seventh seed Khent Darylle Delig, and eighth seed Jave Mareck Peteros.
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Villarin in 7th, 8th rounds
However, in the seventh and eighth rounds, Villarin encountered two successive draws against top seed Remegio Galenzoga III and third seed John Dave Lavandero, respectively.
Still, Villarin capped off his campaign with a much-needed win against fellow USJ-R woodpusher Arje Villarin in the final round.
Galenzoga, Peteros, and Lavandero each scored 7.5 points to finish second, third, and fourth places respectively. They too received cash prizes from the organizers.
The fifth to 10th placers were Krizal Gutang (7.0), Duane Borgonia (7.0), Apple Rubin (7.0), Lennox (7.0), Rengie Momo(7.0),, and Delig (6.5).
Besides the main winners of the tournament, special awards were also given to various age groups.
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