This magnificent FEU Junior Team (yes, I am referring to the HIGH SCHOOL squad). It is composed of:
board 1 IM John Marvin Miciano
board 2 NM John Merill Jacutina
board 3 Jeth Romy Morado
board 4 Istraelito Rilloraza
board 5 Jarvey Labanda
board 6 Dale Bernardo
They ran away with the 2018 UAAP Junior Chess Team Championship. All of the players medaled. Aside from the Most Valuable Player Award going to John Miciano, they won four gold medals (Miciano, Jacutina, Labanda and Dale Bernardo) for best performance on their respective boards. The other members of their squad (Jeth Romy Morada and Istraelito Rilloraza) got silver medals.
This year’s ASEAN Youth Chess Championship was hosted by Davao City from June 18-28 and the FEU team went down south to compete. The results in their age groups (top five places only):
UNDER 20. 1 IM Paulo Bersamina PHI 2413, 7.5/9, 2 FM Lazarya Jodi Setyaki INA 2340, 6.5/9, 3 FM Sai Agni Jeevitesh IND 2362, 6.0/9, 4-5 IM John Marvin Miciano PHI 2459, FM Stephen Rome Pangilinan PHI 2185, 5.5/9. Note: IM Paulo Bersamina gets his 2nd GM norm. He needs one more to get the full title.
UNDER 18. 1-2 Dale Bernardo PHI 1978, CM John Merill Jacutina PHI 2079, 8.0/9, 3 IM Tran Minh Thang VIE 2383, 6.0/9, 4-5 Carl Zirex Sato PHI, Istraelito Rilloraza PHI 2008, 5.5/9. Note: Dale Bernardo won on tiebreaks and was declared Under-18 champion. This brought with it the automatic International Master title. John Merill Jacutina as consolation prize got the outright FIDE Master title and an International Master (IM) norm.
By the way, the FEU women’s squad also came home with a big success.
UNDER 18 (Girls). 1 WFM Shania Mae Mendoza PHI 2114, 7.5/9, 2-3 WFM Dita Karenza INA 1942, Ella Grace Moulic PHI 1829, 6.5/9, 4 WCM Kylen Joy Mordido PHI 1863, 6.0/9, 5-8 Marife Dela Torre PHI 1677, WIM Nguyen Thanh Thuy Tien VIE 2011, WFM Vu Thi Dieu Ai VIE 1829, WFM Nguyen Thi Minh Oanh VIE 1882, 5.0/9. Note: Shania Mae Mendoza wins the gold and gets the outright Woman International Master (WIM) title.
In the ASEAN Youth Championships there were separate events for Under-20, Under 18, Under-16, etc all the way down to Under-8, with separate boys and girls divisions and also separate competitions in standard, rapid and blitz chess. Then there is the seniors division. A total of 45 separate tournament with individual as well as team golds at stake.
At the end Vietnam dominated by amassing a total of 70 gold, 56 silver and 30 bronze medals. The Philippines came second with 55 gold, 45 silver and 26 bronze medals. What is particularly eye-opening is that out of the Philippines’ total haul the Far Eastern contingent accounted for 17 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze medals.
Under the leadership of FEU Chairman Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola the Far Eastern University is hitting new levels of excellence, both academically and in athletics. I am sure that most BW readers have noticed the number of board topnotchers lately coming out of FEU. In chess he has slowly built up a winning culture not by pirating top players from other squads but in carefully choosing his people, getting a coach like GM Jayson Gonzales who is a real teacher and builds up his squad through good training methods, wise life guidance and strict but fair instructions.
Chess is no longer the same game as we had before. Now with digital databases and computers to prepare the need for practice and training is felt more and more. Talent is not enough. There was a time when the Philippines was no. 1 in Asia. Now our regional rivals China, India and Vietnam have all overtaken us. We can still reclaim our leadership position though if we all just decide to do it. If ONE University can get 17 gold medals in the ASEAN championships, think of what we might accomplish if we have all our schools making up their mind to be better, to be the best.
The games of the event are not yet available and we will give a more in-depth report once they are. Let me point out though the shocking win of Dale Bernardo in the Under-18 Championship. Dale is a complete unknown, untitled, had not yet made his name in the local chess circuit but came out on top in the Under-18 Championship, one of the most prestigious events in the Championships. By virtue of the win Dale Bernardo is now an International Master.
I was very intrigued and went back to the UAAP games from earlier this year to look up his games. He was only fielded 4 times in the UAAP and scored 3.5/4. Here is one of his wins.
[FEU] BERNARDO,Dale T — [NU] DOROY,Allanney Jia [B07]
2017–18 UAAP Chess (JUNIORS) 1st Flr. QPAV Bldg., UST, Esp (12.3), 25.03.2018
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Bc4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Bg5 Nxe4 6.Bxf7+ Kxf7 7.Nxe4 Rf8
Black does not seem to have any problem in this opening at all:
7…Qd7 8.Be3 Rf8 9.Qd2 Qb5 10.0–0–0 Bf5 11.Nc3 Qc4 12.f3 Nc6 0–1 (83) Kunte,A (2505)-Ftacnik,L (2585) Koszalin 1998;
7…h6 8.Qf3+ Kg8 9.Be3 Qf8 10.Qg3 Bf5 11.Qf3 Nc6 12.c3 Qf7 Black is doing fine: 0–1 (39) Antoniacci,R (2065)-Gofshtein,L (2580) Arco 2000.
8.Qd2
Eyeing the standard Bh6 then h2–h4–h5 attack against Black’s fianchettoed position.
8…d5 9.Ng3 Kg8 10.h4 Qd6 11.h5 Nc6 12.Bh6
Maybe he should have prefaced this move with 12.N1e2 keeping an eye on d4 and f4.
12…Bxh6 13.Qxh6 Nxd4 14.0–0–0 Qf4+
White’s attack is over.
15.Qxf4 Rxf4 16.c3 Nc6 17.f3 Be6 18.hxg6 hxg6 19.N1e2 Rff8 20.Nd4 Nxd4 21.cxd4 c5 22.Rde1 Rf6 23.Kd2 cxd4 24.Ne2 Bf7 25.Nxd4 Rb6 26.b3 e6
Dale hits upon the maneuver f3–f4 followed by doubling rooks on the h-file.
27.f4! a5 28.Rh3 a4?
[28…Kg7 29.Reh1 Bg8 holds]
29.Reh1
Threatening to win the a8 rook with Rh8+
29…Kg7 30.Rh7+ Kf6
[30…Kf8 31.Rh8+ Bg8 32.R1h7 with the deadly threat of Nd4–f3–e5xg6+]
31.g4 axb3 32.axb3 Ra2+ 33.Ke3 Rg2? 34.g5+ Ke7 35.Rc1
Winning the bishop.
35…Rg3+ 36.Ke2 e5 37.fxe5 Rxg5 38.Rc7+ Ke8 39.Rh8+ 1–0
Here is a game, also from the UAAP, of our newest Woman’s International Master (WIM).
[DLSU] MIRANO,Mira T — [FEU] MENDOZA,Shania Mae [B06]
2017–18 UAAP Chess (WOMEN) 1st Flr., QPAV Bldg., UST, Es (14.1), 08.04.2018
1.e4 d6 2.g3 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Bg2 Bg7 5.d3 0–0 6.Nge2 c6 7.Bd2 e5 8.Qc1 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Bh6 f5 11.Bxg7 Kxg7 12.f4 Nxc3 13.Nxc3 exf4 14.Qxf4 Be6 15.0–0–0 Nd7 16.Rde1 Re8 17.Re2 Nf6 18.Rhe1 Qd7 19.Bf3 Bf7 20.Re5 Rxe5 21.Rxe5 Re8 22.Qe3 Rxe5 23.Qxe5 Qe6 24.Qxe6 Bxe6
Nothing much going on you say? From this position study carefully what Shania does.
25.a4 a5 26.Ne2 Kf7 27.Nd4 Bd7 28.c4 c5 29.Nb5?
White has no inkling of what is going to happen.
29…Bxb5! 30.axb5 b6
POSITION AFTER 30…B6
Do you see it? Material is completely equal but Black is winning. White has a weakness on d3, his bishop has no targets to attack while Black’s knight can jump around and go after White’s pawns at will.]
31.Kd2
Trying to get in Ke3 and d3–d4.
31…Ke6 32.Ke3 Ke5
Nope! White’s pawn remains on d3. Black’s knight will now go to e6 to support a kingside pawn advance.
33.Bd1 Ne8 34.Bf3 Nc7 35.g4 f4+ 36.Kf2 Ne6 37.h4 h6 38.Be2 Kd4 39.Bf1 g5 40.hxg5 hxg5
Black can now bring her knight to e5 to win one of the white pawns.
41.Ke2 f3+!
Or she can do this.
42.Kd2
[42.Kxf3 Nf4]
42…Nf4 43.b3 Ng2 0–1
A beautiful win.
Two new international masters from FEU! The rise of these stars show that we have a lot of them all around, we just have to identify, nurture and develop their talents.
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
