Small pleasures

Zone 3.3 Chess Championship Tagaytay City, Philippines Feb. 25-March 5, 2017

Final Top Standings

1-2 FM Yeoh Li Tian MAS 2449, GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son VIE 2629, 7.0/9

3-4 IM Oliver Dimakiling PHI 2405, FM Liu Xiangyi SGP 2443, 6.0/9

5-7 GM Susanto Megaranto INA 2527, IM Nguyen Van Huy VIE 2413, IM Haridas Pascua PHI 2440, 5.5/9

8-17 IM Paulo Bersamina PHI 2409, FM Pitra Andyka INA 2390, FM Azarya Jodi Setyaki INA 2336, GM Nguyen Huymh Minh Huy VIE 2433, GM Rogelio Barcenilla PHI 2455, FM Nguyen Anh Khoi VIE 2459, GM Darwin Laylo PHI 2445, GM John Paul Gomez PHI 2481, GM Julio Catalino Sadorra PHI 2596, IM Kevin Goh Wei Ming SGP 2457, 5.0/9 Total Number of Participants: 36 Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1.

I really felt bad about the performance of the Filipino players in the Zonal Championship, what’s more because the top two finishers would represent our zone in the World Cup which will be held in Tbilisi in September 2017.

The strong Mongolian chess team did not send any representatives so surely that buoyed up the chances of the local chessers. Our top board GM Ino Sadorra came all the way from the United States to compete and became the second seed after Vietnamese GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. Our entire Olympiad squad except for Eugene Torre ( who acted as Philippine coach) showed up to compete. Aside from Sadorra, there was GM John Paul Gomez, GM Rogelio Barcenilla, and IM Paulo Bersamina).

And all of them failed. Yeoh and Truong Son tied for first with 7/9. Both of them were undefeated and won five games: Yeoh against John Miciano, FM Adrian Pacis, IM Liu Xiangyi, GM Rogelio Antonio and IM Oliver Dimakiling and the Vietnamese GM vs IM Nguyen Van Hai, IM Tin Jingyao, GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy, FM Liu Xiangyi and GM Rogelio Barcenilla.

My friend the famous chess journalist Ignacio Dee told me that we must be content with small pleasures: Dimakiling’s fighting form and Stephen Rome Pangilinan’s bright promise.

Candidate Master ( CM) Stephen Rome Pangilinan, 14 and a grade eight student at Philippine Science High School, is a product of the Milo Checkmate Program of Mila Emperado and has been winning tournaments since he was six years old. He upset GM Ino Sadorra in the 6th round. Stephen’s FIDE rating stands at 1982 against Sadorra’s 2596. That’s more than 600 points’ difference — statistically, that means if they played a hundred games Sadorra would win 98 times. Ino did not count on Pangilinan’s tactical prowess. Watch. *** Sadorra, Julio Catalino (2596) — Pangilinan, Stephen Rome (1982) [D17] Zone 3.3 ch 2017 Tagaytay City (6.9), 02.03.2017 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 g5 12.Ne3 gxf4 13.Nxf5 fxg3?!

So far so book, but this move is rare. 13...0–0–0 is played almost automatically. Exchanging on g3 removes some of Black’s flexibility as anytime White plays g3xf4 then ... Ng6 and White’s kingside is open to attack.

14.hxg3 0–0–0 15.Qc2 Nc5 16.b4 Ne6 17.Qe4?!

White is overthinking. Simply 17.b5 cxb5 18.axb5 leaves him with a good advantage due to the exposed Black king.

17...Ng5 18.Qe3 Bxb4 19.0–0 Rhe8 20.Nb5?

A faulty combination, hoping for 20...cxb5 21.Qxg5 with deadly threats against the Black king. Stephen finds the refutation.

20...Nef3+! 21.exf3 Rxe3 22.Nxc7 Nxf3+ 23.Kh1!

[23.Bxf3 Rxf3 White’s knight on c7 cannot extricate itself.]

23...Red3 24.Rfb1

Hoping for 24... a5 25. Na8 and the knight escapes through b6, or at least White thinks so. Actually 25... Nd2! 26. Rd1 Bc5 entraps it just the same. Both players avoid this line altogether.

24...Bc3 25.Ne8 Bxa1!

The tempting 25... Rxe8 is met by 26.Ra3 Re5 27.Bxf3 Rxf3 28.Nd6+ Kc7 29.Kg2 Rd3 30.Nxf7 with complications.

26.Bxf3?

Sadorra falls apart. 26.Ned6+! R3xd6 ( Certainly not 26... Kc7?? 27. Rxb7#) 27. Nxd6+ Rxd6 28. Bxf3 Black is still winning but there are a lot of technical difficulties.

26... Rxf3 27. Nfd6+ Rxd6! 28.Nxd6+ Kc7 29.Kg2 Ra3 30.Nxf7 Rxa4 31.Rh1 b5 32.Rxh7

Stephen is just a pawn up but his pawns are too mobile and his bishop is superior to White’s king in such pawn races.

32...b4 33.Ne5+ Kd6 34.Nd3 Bd4 35.Rh6+ Kd5 36.Nf4+ Kc5 37.Ne6+ Kc4 38. Nxd4 Kxd4 39. Rd6+ Kc5 40. Rd1 b3 41. f4 b2 42. Rb1 Rb4 43.Kf3 a5 0–1

Stephen also beat FM Alekhine Nouri ( another prodigy), IM Nguyen Van Hai and Raul Sol Cruz for a total rating gain of 47.6 points. His victory over the Vietnamese IM is very impressive.

*** Nguyen, Van Hai ( 2353) — Pangilinan, Stephen Rome ( 1982)

[ D11] Zone 3.3 ch 2017 Tagaytay City

(5.15), 01.03.2017 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.e3 a6 5.Nbd2

Should this knight be on c3 or on d2? On d2 the knight cannot be pushed by ... b5– b4. On the other hand, this approach is not so active and if the play gets sharp then White may rue the passive position of the knight.

5...Bf5

The point of 5.Nbd2 is that 5...b5?! does not look so good anymore after 6. cxd5 cxd5 7. a4 b4 8. Nb3 the white knight is in a good position and White’s pieces are much better developed than their counterparts.

6.Nh4 Bg4

Morozevich got this position in one of his games and played 6...Be4!? which actually makes a lot of sense since White has to weaken his position with f2–f3 to force the exchange of his h4–knight for the bishop.

7.f3

Might not be best — White voluntarily weakens his position. 7. Qb3 is probably best.

7...Bh5 8.g4 Bg6 9.g5 Nfd7 10.Qb3 Ra7 11.f4 e6 12.Nxg6 hxg6

White has pushed back Black’s forces, but Black has a solid pawn structure and hopes to prove that White’s advanced pawns are vulnerable to counterattack.

13. Bg2 dxc4 14. Nxc4 b5 15. Ne5 Nxe5 16. dxe5 c5 17.0– 0 c4 18. Qc2 Bc5 19.b3 Qb6 20.Qe4

A safer continuation was 20. bxc4 Bxe3+ 21.Bxe3 Qxe3+ 22.Qf2 forces the exchange of queens. And now after 22... Qxf2+ 23.Rxf2 bxc4 24.Rc1 Rc7 25.Rfc2 wins back the pawn, although it was not clear if it will be enough. I believe White didn’t want to exchange queens because he could see that Black’s king had to castle sooner or later, and if that happens h2–h4–h5 is an obvious attack.

20... c3! 21. b4 Be7 22. Rb1 Rc7 23.Qc2 Rc4 24.a3 0–0?!

This might be a mistake. Perhaps Black should have kept his king in the center long with 24... Nd7 planning ...Qc7 and ...Nb6.

25. h4! Rd8 26. Rb3 Qc7 27. h5! gxh5 28.g6

White has the dangerous threat of gxf7+. Pangilinan’s next move is first class. <D>

POSITION AFTER 28.G6

28...Nd7! 29.gxf7+ Kxf7 30.f5? Looks very dangerous but actually a mistake. Better was 30.Bf3 g6 31.Bxh5! gxh5 32.Qh7+ Ke8 33.Qxh5+ Kf8 with at least a draw, maybe more.

30...Nxe5!

The point of 28...Nd7, aiming for g4.

31.fxe6+ Kg8

[ 31... Kxe6?? 32. Qf5+ Kd6 33. Rd1+ followed by mate]

32.Rf4 Ng4!

White’s rook on f4 cannot move because of ...Qh2+

33.Bf3 Bg5 34.e7 Qxe7 35.Rxc4 Bxe3+ 36.Kg2 bxc4 37.Rxc3 Qg5 38.Kf1 Qf4 39.Qe2 Bxc1 40.Qe7 Rd1+ 0–1

Unfortunately, small pleasures for me is not enough. There was a time when the Philippines sent a student team to represent us in the Asian Team Championships and we won the event just the same. Given the number of chessplayers and the affinity of Filipino players to mind games, chess is the sport where we should be dominating in Asia, not just Southeat Asia.

And where are we now? It is not enough for our top players to come together for these international tournaments — they have to be closed off and do some training, both in terms of chess and physically, prior to the event. Maybe the Philippine Chess Society can be coaxed into coming back and once again actively promote the three “E”s: education, excellent, enjoyment?

Maybe our National Chess Federation and once again come up with a dynamic management team to arrange for constant activity for our players, both masters and grassroots? How about the National Team Championships, College Team Championships, Junior and Age Group Competitions of yesterday?

All of these have to come back. Is there somebody who can do this again?

Maybe, maybe, maybe. But right now let me grieve in silence.