2017 Piaya Network Negros International Open
Ikthus Osbrown Hall, Bacolod City,
Oct. 11-19, 2017
FINAL TOP STANDINGS
1. GM Nigel Short ENG 2698, 8.0/9
2-3. GM Karen Grigoryan ARM 2586, GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 2499, 7.0/9
4-8. GM Narayanan Srinath IND 2511, GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. PHI 2365, IM Tran Minh Thang VIE 2352, IM Kim Steven Yap PHI 2361, IM Oliver Dimakiling PHI 2419, 6.0/9
9-15. Edsel Montoya PHI 2262, IM Ronald Dableo PHI 2419, Jayson Salubre PHI 2282, GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 2558, Ted Ian Montoyo PHI 2297, GM Darwin Laylo PHI 2402, Xavier John Verdun PHI 2147, 5.5/9
Total of 51 participants
Time Control: 90 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1.
The 2017 Piaya Network Negros International Open is the brainchild of Mr. Antonio Aguirre. Here is some stuff I wrote about eight years ago during the maiden staging of what was to become an annual event.
Mr. Antonio Ivan S. Aguirre has a lot of letters after his name: CPA (Certified Public Accountant), CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner), CSI (Certified System Investigator), and MBA (Master of Business Administration). He worked previously with Metrobank as the Head of Special Audit and is now connected as the Chief Resident Auditor of the United Nations in New York City. Tony Aguirre is also a coauthor of a book published in 2009 entitled Casebook on Computer Fraud.
And just so you don’t think he is a complete nerd, I should warn you that he is also into martial arts as Senior Instructor of Modified Tapado and Modified Karate under Grandmaster Mike Vazquez.
Tony had given up on his chess ambitions shortly after graduating from college to earn a living. Now that life for him has assumed some financial stability and his family provided for, he wants to give back something to chess and that is why he established an annual chess open in Bacolod City to give the local chess talents the opportunity to play in a tournament and face strong competition.
I quote from a speech he gave last June during the awarding ceremonies of the Negros Closed Chess Championship held at Ayala Malls in Talisay City: “Like what I said 10 years ago, we are dreamers and intend to make this dream come true. That this October 2017, during the Negros International Open Chess, we intend to bring in more sponsors joining us — means more cash awards at stake that will compensate the efforts and hard work rendered.”
During these days, when chess in the Philippines is enduring its worst days, it is the dreamers, the people with vision, like Tony Aguirre who gives us hope.
Now let us look at the other Antonio, more specifically GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. During his heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s he hardly ever lost a game. He was fierce in attack, patient in defense, a studious openings researcher, someone who never says die and finds tactical resources which most of us would never even consider.
During training for the 1999 FIDE KO Chess Championship in Las Vegas we arranged for a secret training match with GM Eugene Torre and it was there that I saw the difference between an International Master and a Grandmaster — all Masters are strong players, of course, but a lot of them have only one big push in them. They play, find an opening, and attack hard. If you play well then you get the draw. Grandmasters, however, keep on fighting up to the end. You deflect their attack, they start gnawing at the queenside. You win some material against them they look for compensation in their piece play.
Grandmasters do not give up — you have to beat them three times each game, in the opening, middle game and end game before they concede the point to you. I remember how wonderful it was for me to observe at close hand how they fought, disengaged, and fought some more. The openings for each game were announced beforehand — I did a lot of research together with GM Joey on the various schemes to employ, and then to see them unfold on the board and how GM Eugene, always well prepared, would counter our strategies… unforgettable! Regular visitors to the games were Senator and future President of the Philippines PNoy, Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte and former Senator Nikki Coseteng. PNoy was quite a good player and all of them understood chess and appreciated how good these two players were.
GM Joey Antonio has been on and off for the past few years now that many of us have forgotten just what a strong player he is. I consider myself privileged to have witnessed at firsthand how he was during his best years at the turn of the century. The brilliant mesh of strategy and tactics is a pleasure to behold. In Negros, we got a glimpse of what he can do.
Roque, Merben (2309) — Antonio, Rogelio, Jr. (2365) [B17]
Negros Open 2017
Bacolod City (3),
Oct. 13, 2017
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7
This is known as the Karpov Variation, after the world’s 12th world champion who resorted to this line almost exclusively in the second half of his very long and distinguished career.
5.Ng5
I know a guy who always plays 5.Qe2 is a quite bold attempt. Here in blitz games, hoping for 5…Ngf6 6.Nd6# is the dream line. In many cases he succeeds!
5…Ngf6
Another thing to watch out for: 5…h6? is a mistake because of 6.Ne6! Qa5+ (6…fxe6?? 7.Qh5+ and mate) 7.Bd2 Qb6 8.Bd3! fxe6?? (8…Ngf6 9.Nf3 fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.0–0 c5 12.c4 cxd4 13.Nxd4 e5 14.c5 Nxc5 15.Ba5 exd4 16.Qxd4+ Ncd7 17.Bxb6+ axb6 18.Rac1 e5 19.Qc4 Bc5 20.Rfd1 Rf8 21.b4 Bd4 22.Rxd4 1–0 Tal,M-Oll,L/Riga 1986) 9.Qh5+ Kd8 10.Ba5 winning the queen. Georgiev continued this game until move 42 because he didn’t want to enter the history books as the loser of a 10-mover. Obviously, he could have resigned here. Nunn, J. (2615)-Georgiev, K. (2595) Linares 1988 1–0 42.
6.Bd3
White should play this move before N1f3, as it prevents 6…h6? with 7.Ne6! fxe6 8.Bg6 mate.
6…e6 7.N1f3 Bd6
The controversial 7…h6?! was played by Kasparov against the computer Deep Blue and he crashed to a big loss — he really didn’t expect a computer to sacrifice speculatively, and this was one reason why he later on accused the IBM team of cheating. Let us see: 8.Nxe6! Qe7?! (Garry should have accepted the “gift.” White gets an enormous attack after 8…fxe6 9.Bg6+ Ke7 10.0–0 Qc7 11.Qe2!? Kd8 12.Ne5!? but the game is far from over and shut) 9.0–0 fxe6 10.Bg6+ Kd8 11.Bf4 b5 12.a4 Bb7 13.Re1 Nd5 14.Bg3 Kc8 15.axb5 cxb5 16.Qd3 Bc6 17.Bf5 exf5 18.Rxe7 Bxe7 19.c4 1–0 Comp Deep Blue-Kasparov,G (2785) New York 1997.
8.Qe2 h6
[8…Qc7?? 9.Nxf7! Kxf7 10.Ng5+ Ke8 11.Qxe6+ Be7 12.Qf7+ Kd8 13.Ne6#]
9.Ne4
Now 9.Nxe6? does not work: 9…fxe6 10.Qxe6+ Qe7 it is Black who is better.
9…Nxe4 10.Qxe4 Qc7
White now has 11.Qg4, 11.0–0 and 11.Bd2, all of them with a lot of theory.
11.Bd2 b6 12.0–0–0 Bb7 13.Qe2 0–0–0 14.Ba6 Rhe8 15.Bc3 f5!? 1
Usually Black plays 15…Nf6. Roque had this position before. He lost to Darwin Laylo three years ago after 16.Bxb7+ Kxb7 17.Ne5 Nd5 18.Qf3 b5 19.Bd2 Bxe5 20.dxe5 c5 21.Qe4 c4 22.Bb4 Qc6 23.Ba5 Rd7 24.a3 Qa6 25.Bb4 Rc8 26.c3 Qb6 27.Rd4 Ka8 28.Rhd1 Rb7 29.Bd6 a5 30.Kd2 f5 31.Qf3 g5 32.h3 Nf4 33.g3 Nd3 34.b4 Qc6 35.Qxc6 Rxc6 36.Ke3 axb4 37.axb4 Ra7 38.f4 Ra2 39.Rd2 Rxd2 40.Kxd2 gxf4 41.gxf4 Ra6 42.Bf8 Ra2+ 43.Ke3 Rh2 44.Rd6 Rxh3+ 45.Kd4 Kb7 46.Rxe6 Nxf4 47.Re7+ Kc6 48.e6 Ng6 threatening White’s rook, bishop and …Rd3 checkmate. 0–1 Roque, M. (2271)-Laylo, D. (2500) Quezon City Puregold Open 2014.
16.Rhe1 Nf6 17.Bd3 Kb8 18.Ne5 g5 19.g3 Nd5 20.Bd2 c5 21.Bb5?! <D>
With 100% hindsight we can conclude that White should have exchanged pawns first with 21.dxc5 Bxc5 before playing 22.Bb5.
POSITION AFTER 21.BB5
21…cxd4!
Because now Black has the opportunity to sacrifice the exchange to get a pawn roller going.
22.Bxe8 Rxe8 23.Kb1 Nf6
With the idea of …Ne4 cutting off the defense of the white knight on e5.
24.Nd3 g4
Now going for …Bf3.
25.Rc1 Bf3! 26.Qf1 Ne4!
Slowly Black is pushing back white’s forces.
27.Bb4
[27.Bxh6? Rh8 the bishop has nowhere to go. If 28.Bf4 Bxf4 followed by …Nd2+ with a family fork]
27…a5
[27…Bxb4 28.Nxb4 Black has …Nd2+ with the family fork, but White also has Na6+, also a family fork]
28.Bxd6 Qxd6 29.Re2 e5 30.Ne1 Rc8
GM Joey was so concentrated on harmoniously combining his pieces that he overlooks a direct winning attack with 30…Nc3+! 31.bxc3 (31.Ka1 Bxe2 32.Qg2 Bc4 33.bxc3 Qa3 with unavoidable mate) 31…Bd5 there is nothing White can do. For example 32.Nd3 dxc3 33.Rce1 Qa3.
31.Ka1 Bxe2 32.Qxe2 Nc5
The rest of the game is just one efficient execution.
33.Nd3 Nxd3 34.Qxd3 e4 35.Qd2 Kb7 36.Kb1 Rc6 37.Rd1 Qc5! 38.a3 Rd6 39.Qe2 b5 40.Rh1 Rb6 41.h3 gxh3 42.Rxh3 Qc4 43.Qe1 d3 44.cxd3 Qxd3+ 45.Ka2 b4 46.Qc1 Rc6 47.Qb1 Rc2 48.Ka1 bxa3 0–1
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.
