Chess Piece
Bobby Ang
2016-2017 UAAP Chess Team Tournament (Seniors)
Feb. 4-April 2, 2017
4th Floor, Henry Sy, Sr. Hall,
Dela Salle University, Taft Avenue, Manila
Final Ranking
1. NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (NU), 44/56, 28 match points
Bd01 IM Paul Bersamina 12/14, Bd02 Ryan Christian Magtabog 6.5/12, Bd03 FM Austin Jacob Literatus 13/14, Bd04 Vince Angelo Medina 11.5/14, Bd05 Neil Conrad Pondoc 1/2. Team Captain: Neil Conrad Pondoc, Team Coach: Jose Aquino, Jr., Team Manager: Samson Go/Manny Go
2. FAR EASTERN UNIVERSITY (FEU), 39/56, 19 match points
Bd01 NM Paul Robert Evangelista 10/13, Bd02 Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano 11/14, Bd03 Romy Fagon 7.5/11, Bd04 Coellier Graspela 0/3, Bd05 Jose Carlo Castro 6.5/10, Bd06 Ferdinand Aviles 4/5. Team Captain: Paul Robert Evangelista, Head Coach: GM Jayson Gonzales, Asst. Coach: NM Alexander Milagrosa.
3. UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST (UE), 33.5/56, 20 match points
Bd01 Christian Villegas, Bd02 Kimuel Aaron Lorenzo 9.5/14, Bd03 Keneth Flores 7.5/14, Bd04 John Ernie Maraan 5/9, Bd05 Eliseo Budoso 8/13, Bd06 Ronald Allan Barcelon 3.5/6. Team Captain: Christian Villegas, Team Coach: John Perzeus Orozco.
4. UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS (UST), 31/56, 18 match points
Bd01 Heirry Manaloto 9.5/14, Bd02 Jhon Petter Ablid 5/11, Bd03 Christian Anthony Flores 10.5/14, Bd04 Philip Andrew Uy 1/2, Bd05 Normel Benigno De Jesus 4/11, Bd06 Homel Aristotle Cunanan 1/4. Team Captain: Normel Bengno De Jesus, Team Coach: IM Ronald Dableo, Team Manager: Rizia Arah Rustia.
5. DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY (DLSU), 26/56, 12 match points
Bd01 Cedrik John Malabanan 0/1, Bd02 Jeazzir Kline Surposa 3/14, Bd03 NM Giovanni Mejia 8.5/14, Bd04 Christian Nanola 8/14, Bd05 Denzel John Amar 6.5/13. Team Captain: Denzel John Amar, Team Coaches: FM Randy Segarra, Susan Grace Neri, Team Managers: George Barcelon, WFM Cherry Ann Mejia, Karen Dimen.
6. ADAMSON UNIVERSITY (AdU), 25.5/56, 11 match points
Bd01 Christian Huavas 1/4, Bd02 Kristian Clyde Arellano 4/8, Bd03 Marc Kevin Labog 7/14, Bd04 Jayson Levin Tapia 7.5/14, Bd05 Godfrey Villamor 1/5, Bd06 Alji Cantonjos 5/11. Team Captain: Mark Kevin Labog, Team Coach: Christopher Rodriguez.
7. ATENEO DE MANILA UNIVERSITY (ADMU), 12.5/56, 3 match points
Bd01 Paco Rivera 0/4, Bd02 Wilmart Ricki Yao 0.5/9, Bd03 Lorenzo Miguel Marquez 5/13, Bd04 Gavin Lloyd Ong 3/13, Bd05 Lance Augustine Ting 0/6, Bd06 Jose Lorenzo Lat 1/4. Team Captain: Wilmart Ricki Yao, Team Coach: GM Darwin Laylo, IM Jem Garcia, Team Managers: Paco Rivera, Brian Dytocho
8. UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES (UP), 12.5/56, 1 match point
Bd01 Kristian Paulo Cristobal 5.5/13, Bd02 Mac Quay Labasano 0/9, Bd03 Justin David Corpin 3/14, Bd05 Alson Vincent Lim, Jr. 2.5/11, Bd06 Raul Sol Cruz, Jr. 1.5/9. Team Captain: Kristian Paulo Cristobal, Team Coaches: FM Leonardo Carlos, WIM Catherine Secopito.
Individual Awards:
Most Valuable Player: IM Paulo Bersamina (NU); Rookie of the Year: Gavin Lloyd Ong (ADMU);
Board 1; Gold IM Paulo Bersamina (NU); Silver NM Paul Robert Evangelistsa (FEU); Bronze Heirry Manaloto (UST)
Board 2; Gold Rhenzi Kyle Sevillano (FEU); Silver Kimuel Aaron Lorenzo (UE); Bronze Ryan Christian Magtabog (NU)
Board 3: Gold FM Austin Jacob Literatus (NU) Silver Christian Anthony Flores (UST); Bronze Romy Fagon (FEU)
Board 4: Gold Vince Angelo Medina (NU); Silver Christian Nanola (DLSU); Bronze John Ernie Maraan (UE)
Board 5: Gold Jose Carlo Castro (FEU); Silver Eliseo Budoso (UE); Bronze Denzel John Amar (DLSU)
Board 6: Gold Ferdinand Aviles (FEU); Silver Ronald Allan Barcelon (UE); Bronze Alji Cantonjos (AdU)
The National University (NU) team is just too strong — there were only two internationally titled players in the whole tournament and both of them were with NU. For the second year in a row they ran away with the tournament. Last year, it was 42.5/56, 6.5 points ahead of second place UST. This year, they had 44/56, 5 points in front of FEU. NU this year won all of their matches, perhaps the first time this has ever been done, at least in recent memory.
Last year NU’s top board IM Paulo Bersamina was the MVP, Rookie of the Year, and won gold on top board. This year he could no longer be Rookie of the Year, but once again Paulo was MVP and topped all Board 1 players. In the last round NU emphasized their dominance by crushing second-placed FEU 3-1, with Bersamina handily defeating Tamaraw top board Paul Robert Evangelista, by no means a pushover.
* * *
Evangelista, Paul Robert (FEU) — Bersamina, Paulo (NU) [B22]
2016–2017 UAAP Chess (SENIORS) Henry Sy, Sr. Hall — DLSU (14.1), 02.04.2017
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.c3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4 Nf6
White chooses a line in the Sicilian designed to tame Bersamina’s aggressive tendencies. It doesn’t work — in a few moves Black gets an attack going.
6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.Qe2+
The main line is 7.Bxd7+ Nbxd7 8.0–0 Be7 9.dxc5 Nxc5 with equality. Why is White putting his queen on e2? He is forcing Black to play …Be7, which the second player really intended to do after all. Besides, the queen is not particularly well placed on the open e-file where it can be harassed by the black rook. If you study the position you will see that the point of Qe2+ is to take the pawn on c5 and try to keep it.
7…Be7 8.Ne5?!
It might be more accurate to go for 8.dxc5 0–0 9.Be3 Re8 10.b4 where perhaps Black can counter with 10…a5 followed up with …Ng4 and …Bf6, and there is a nice fight coming up.
8…Nc6 9.Bxc6 bxc6 10.dxc5 0–0 11.b4
White is a pawn up but has to be careful as Black has a strong initiative. At this point the reader might appreciate my previous note — it would have been much better for Paul Robert to have his bishop on e3 rather than knight on e5.
11…Ne4 12.0–0
[12.f3? Bh4+ 13.g3 Bxg3+]
12…Bf6 13.f3? Bxe5 14.fxe4 Qh4 <D>
Black already has a winning attack, and we are only on the 14th move!
15.g3 Qxe4 16.Qf2?
I don’t know why White didn’t exchange queens.
16…Rae8
Even stronger is 16…Qg6! with the follow-up 17…Bh3 18.Re1 Rae8 and 19… f5. But why quibble? Paulo’s move is winning enough.
17.Re1 Bxg3!
Another way is 17…Qxe1+ 18.Qxe1 Bd4+ 19.Be3 (19.Kf1? Bh3#) 19…Rxe3 20.Qxe3 Bxe3+ 21.Kg2 Re8 with an easily winning endgame.
18.Rxe4 Bxf2+ 19.Kxf2 Rxe4 20.Nd2 Re6 21.Nf1 Rfe8
The idea behind 21…Rfe8 is 22…Rf6+ 23.Kg2 Re2+ 24.Kg1 Re1 and Black wins the house.
22.Ne3 f5 23.Kf3 f4 24.Kxf4 Rf8+ 25.Kg3 Rg6+ 26.Kh4 Rf4+ 27.Kh5 Be8 0–1
White gives up in view of the unstoppable threat of 28…Rh1 mate.
IM Bersamina is quite an expert in the Grand Prix e4+f4 systems. So much so that he also plays it from the Black side.
* * *
Cristobal, Kristian Paulo (UP) — Bersamina, Paulo (NU) [A25]
2016–2017 UAAP Chess (SENIORS) Henry Sy, Sr. Hall — DLSU (13.1), 01.04.2017
1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 f5 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.d3 Bb4 6.Bd2 0–0 7.e3 d6 8.Nge2 Qe8 9.0–0 a5 10.Nd5 Qf7 11.Bxb4 Nxb4 12.Nec3 Nbxd5 13.Nxd5 c6 14.Nxf6+ Qxf6 15.d4 f4 16.dxe5 dxe5 17.Be4 f3 18.Qd3 Qh6 19.Rfd1 Be6 20.b3 Rf6 21.Rd2 Raf8 22.Rad1 g5 23.Qf1 Bh3 24.Qe1 Bg2
After 24…Bg2 the threat is 25…Qxh2+ 26.Kxh2 Rh6+ 27.Kg1 Rh1 mate.
25.h4 Bh3?!
Black wanted to play 25…gxh4 but did not want to allow complications after 26.Rd7 (attacking h7) 26…R8f7 27.Rxf7 Rxf7 28.Qxa5 with either Qd8+ or Qxe5 coming up. But nevertheless he should have played 25…gxh4 as after 26.Rd7 he could have refuted the whole linen with 26…hxg3! 27.Rxh7 Qg5 28.Rdd7 Rh6! winning.
26.Rd8
[26.Rd7 Bxd7 is why Black retreated his bishop to h3]
26…gxh4 27.g4 Qg5 28.Kh2 Qxg4 29.Qg1 Bg2 0–1
His expertise with the Grand Prix system is both his strength and his weakness. Why is it a weakness? He plays it all the time — maybe this is good for the college level, but in international competition it is easy to prepare against him. In last year’s World Junior Championship for example Jeffery Xiong was obviously prepared for this opening and beat him without a chance. I think that for IM Bersamina to advance to the next level he has to work seriously with experts in different systems.
At a very young age he has already won the Under-20 Championship of the Philippines. Let us all hope that he can continue his hard work and make that quantum leap to the chess elite — he is the one of the very few GM-level strength players the Philippines has got left.
On Thursday, we will look at other top performances.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
