The FIDE World Cup occupied all our attention last September that we forgot to report on an important event — the Philippine National Chess Championship. They used to call it the “Battle of the GMs,” but with every GM who has left Philippine shores or declined to compete the title made less and less sense. This year for example GMs Wesley So, Eugene Torre, Ino Sadorra, Oliver Barbosa, Mark Paragua, Joseph Sanchez, Roland Salvador, Richard Bitoon and Jayson Gonzales were nowhere in sight.
2017 National Chess
Championships Grand Final
Alphaland Makati Place
Sept. 6-13, 2017
Final Standings
1. IM Haridas Pascua 2427, 7.5/10
2-3. GM John Paul Gomez 2463, IM Paulo Bersamina 2397, 7.0/10
4. GM Rogelio Barcenilla 2457, 6.5/10
5-6. IM Chito Garma 2325, Jonathan Jota 2101, 5.0/10
7-8. Jeth Romy Morado, GM Darwin Laylo, 4.5/10
9. IM Ronald Bancod 2276, 3.5/10
10. John Marvin Miciano 2212, 3.0/10
11. Michael Concio, Jr. 1688, 1.5/10
12. GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr., 2438, withdrew
Time Control: 90 minutes for the whole game with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1.
International Master (IM) Haridas Pascua took advantage of the absence of many of the country’s top players to score the biggest win of his life and crown himself Philippine Chess Champion.
Our new champion was born (July 17, 1993) and raised in the town of Mangatarem, Pangasinan. He studied in Baguio and graduated two years ago with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology (BSIT) from the University of Baguio. He is our second International Master (IM) from Pangasinan, the first one being the legendary Rodolfo Tan Cardoso of Alaminos City. He has all the required norms for the International Grandmaster (GM) title (Puregold International Chess Challenge Open 2014, 5th HD Bank Cup International Open March 2015 and 22nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival Masters in August 2015) and just needs to bring his rating over 2500 to get the full title.
Haridas is equally adept at strategy, tactics, and technique but would prefer to counter-attack rather than initiate hostilities. This style can be maddening to meet — you get an initiative, see an opening, start deploying pieces accordingly. Unknowingly, Haridas has seen through your plans and set up his pieces to meet irresistible force with immovable defense. You lack just one tempo to win — but Haridas is striking back hard, and little by little the initiative switches sides, and then you are lost.
Haridas has inflicted defeat on most of the Philippine grandmasters. In the first round of the 2017 Philippine National Championship he did it again in dominant style against the top seed GM Joey Antonio.
Antonio, Rogelio (2438) — Pascua, Haridas (2427) [B30]
Philippine National Championship 2017 (1), 06.09.2017
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.e5
GM Joey had prepared 4.Bxc6! dxc6 5.d3 for his match against IM Kozak in the 1999 FIDE KO World Chess Championship. Up to now I still believe that it is white’s best continuation. Black has difficulty coming up with a plan while the first player has an easy initiative. 5…g6 (5…Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.Nc3 Nd7 8.g4 Bg6 9.Bf4 White scores something like 10:1 in this position.) 6.h3 Bg7 7.Nc3 Nd7 8.Be3 b6 9.Qd2 h6 10.0–0 e5 11.Nh2 once again White’s attack develops naturally.
4…Nd5 5.0–0 Nc7 6.a4 g6 7.b4!?
Preparation or over-the-board inspiration? White uses a type of wing gambit to try and wipe out Black’s position.
7…cxb4
[7…Nxb4 gives White additional tempo to shore up his center. 8.c3 Nc6 9.d4]
8.d4 d5 9.exd6 Qxd6 10.Nbd2 Bg7 11.Nc4
It looks to me that for better or worse White has to give up another pawn: 11.c3!? bxc3 12.Ne4 Qd8 13.Be3 at least White’s initiative is still going strong.
11…Qd8 12.Nce5 Nxb5 13.axb5 Nxd4 14.Bb2 Nxf3+ 15.Qxf3 0–0
Black is clearly better.
16.Qe3 Bf5 17.Bd4 Bxc2 18.Nf3 b3 19.Bxg7 Kxg7 20.Qc3+ Kg8 21.Rfe1 Qd6 22.Re3 Rfc8 23.Qb2 a5!
After this White is lost.
24.Ra4 Rc5 25.h4 Rxb5 26.Rd4 Rd5 27.h5 Rxd4 28.Nxd4 Rd8 29.Nf3 Qf6 30.Rc3 a4 0–1 <D>
FINAL POSITION
This point was later nullified when GM Joey withdrew from the tournament after the 3rd round, but undaunted Haridas scored 5 more wins, including his last 3 games, drew 5 and had no losses to take the title.
Jota, Jonathan (2101) — Pascua, Haridas (2427) [A01]
Philippine National Championship 2017,
Makati (10.2), 12.09.2017
1.b3
GM Baadur Jobava adopted the larsen Opening 1.b3 as his main weapon with White in the 2017 World Cup. That has triggered a boom and every Tom, Dick and Harry is playing it now.
1…Nf6
As I pointed out in an earlier column, the main line is considered to be 1…e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 d5 4.Bb5 Bd6 “with an exciting game ahead.”
2.Bb2 e6 3.g3 c5 4.Bg2 d5 5.d3 Be7 6.Nd2 0–0 7.e4 dxe4 8.dxe4 Qa5 9.Ne2 Rd8 10.Qc1 Nc6 11.Nc3 Nd4
White’s opening setup is not ideal. Black could have made more problems for him with 11…Qa6! and it is not easy for white to castle. If 12.Bf1 c4! 13.Bxc4 (13.Nxc4 Nd4 the hole on f3 is very glaring) 13…Qa5 14.0–0 Bb4 15.Ndb1 Nd4 16.Kg2 Qh5 White has to be very careful.
12.0–0 Rb8 13.Re1 b5 14.e5 Nd7 15.Nf3 Nxf3+ 16.Bxf3 c4 17.a3 Qc7 18.Qf4 cxb3 19.cxb3 Nc5 20.Be4 Nd3 21.Bxd3 Rxd3 22.Ne4 Bb7 23.Rac1 Qd7 24.Nd6 Rf3!?
Exactly the type of move Haridas would make. White is confused.
25.Qd4 Bd5 26.Rc5
Obviously intending to sacrifice on d5.
26…Bd8! 27.Rxd5 exd5 28.Kg2?
Played with the intention of trapping the rook. After 28.Qxd5 Rf5 Black will follow-up with Rh5 and Qh3, but the text is even worse.
28…Bb6! 29.Kxf3
[29.Qxd5 Rxf2+ 30.Kh1 Qh3 spells “the end”]
29…Bxd4 30.Bxd4 f6 31.g4 fxe5 32.Bxe5 d4 33.Kg3 Rb6 34.Nf5 Re6 35.f4 d3 36.Rd1 d2 37.Kf2 Qd3 38.h4 h5 0–1
Haridas is a vegetarian. His name is Sanskrit for “God’s servant.” Hari means God and das means servant. You know why I think he will soon become a mainstay in the Philippine teams to the Olympiad? It is because of something he told me three years ago: “I should serve humanity and Nature as a Whole. Chess to me is the perfect platform where I can connect with everyone in universal brotherhood and love. Many people play chess for their own glory, I play chess for universal love and brotherhood.”
How can you beat that?
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
