Erwin Carag 1967-2017
Veteran journalist Ignacio Dee reported in the Facebook page “Chess Philippines” that National Master Erwin Carag has passed away last June 12. He was just 50 years old.
Erwin was born on March 26, 1967 and was a former Philippine National Kiddies (14 years old and under) Chess Champion. By the way, that term “kiddies” never appealed to me and during my term at the chess federation I tried to change it to “prodigies” but it never caught on.
He got his National Master (NM) title in the 1991 Far East Bank (FEBTC) International Open Chess Championship. NM Erwin Carag was one of the Founding Directors of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) when it was set up in 2000.
He is also an International Arbiter and a very good chess coach. Among his students were two of our current bright prospects: Stephen Rome Pangilinan and Giovanni Mejia.
If you look at the chess databases you will note that there are two Carag brothers. The younger sibling Elmer is a FIDE Master (FM) and represented the Philippines in the 1993 Jakarta Asian Zonals. They are a study in contrast — Elmer’s calm positional style vs Erwin’s fiery tactics. Here are samples of the latter.
NM Rodolfo Toledo is a very strong National Master from Bacolod. I met him during the very well-organized National Team Championship in 1999 held in Sugarlandia of which he was one of the organizers. As a player he is an aggressive attacker (I remember him wiping out Chito Garma with a blitzkrieg attack in that tournament) but sometimes forgets that his opponent may know how to attack as well.
Carag, Erwin — Toledo, Rodolfo [E91] FEBTC op Manila, 1990 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 c5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.e4 0–0 6.Be2 d6 7.0–0 Bg4 8.d5 Nbd7 9.a4 a6 10.Bf4 h6 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Rb8 13.Be2 Kh7 14.Be3 Qa5 I think round about now Black should be trying to muddle up the situation in the center with 14...Re8 and ...e7–e6. 15.Qc2 Ne8 16.f4 Bd4 17.Qd3 Qb6 18.a5 Bxe3+ 19.Qxe3 Qc7
[19...Qxb2?? 20.Rfb1 wins the queen] 20.Bd3 Kg7 21.Rf2 b5 22.axb6 Rxb6 <D>
Black’s overoptimistic play has left White dominant in the center and the kingside. This is the sort of position you can give to your student and ask him to play and win with White. After that use Erwin’s play as your answer key. 23.Re1 f6 24.Qg3
White is threatening 25.e5 discovering an attack on g6. After 25...f5 26.exd6 the e1– rook penetrates. That is why Rudy withdraws his queen to d8, to keep watch over e7. 24... Qd8 25. h4 h5 26. e5 f5 27. Qg5 Qb8 28. e6 Ndf6 29. Bxf5 Kh8 30. Qh6+ Nh7 31.Bxg6 Nef6 32.Ne4 Kg8 33.Ng5 Nxg5 34.fxg5 1–0
Bustamante, Fernan — Carag, Erwin [A31] La Union Open (6), 05.03.2002 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 c5 3.c4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 b6 [4...Nc6 5.Nc3 e6 will bring the game back along normal lines. But sometimes Erwin just wants to experiment.] 5.Nc3 Bb7 6.Bg5 Ne4 7.Nxe4 Bxe4 8.f3
I am not a fan of Erwin’s opening play. The Czech/US GM Lubomir Kavalek, at that time among the World Top 10, pushed back strongly with 8.Nb5! ( threatening Nd6+) 8... d6 9. Qd4 Bb7 10.Rd1 (with the idea of 11.Qe3 d5 12.Bf4) 10...f6 11.Bc1 g6 12.h4 h5 13.Rh3 Black is in trouble. 13...Kf7 14.e4 Nd7 15.f4 Bg7 16.Qe3 Nc5 17.Nc3 f5 18.exf5 gxf5 19.Ne2 e6 20.Nd4 Bxd4 21.Qxd4 Ne4 22.b3 Qe7 23.Ba3 Rad8 24.Be2 Nc5? (the knight was ok where it was) 25.Rg3 e5 26.fxe5 dxe5 27.Bxh5+! Rxh5 28.Qxd8 Qxh4 29.Rd7+ 1– 0 ( 29) Kavalek, L ( 2545)- Flesch, J (2450) Biel 1977. 8...Bb7 9.e4 f6 10.Be3 Nc6 11.Nxc6 Bxc6 12.Be2 e6
Black already has a satisfactory position from the opening. Now please observe the next few moves — White just develops his pieces while Black has a definite plan of attack — go through the f-file!
13.0– 0 Be7 14. Qd2 0– 0 15. Rfd1 Qc7 16.Rac1 a5 17.b3 f5! 18.exf5 Rxf5 19.Bd3 Rh5 20.Bf4 Bc5+ 21.Kh1 Qb7 22. Rf1 Rf8 23. Be2 Bb4 24. Qe3 e5 25.Bg3 [25.Bxe5 Re8 wins the bishop] 25...Bc5 26.Qd2 Rf6 27.Bf2 Bd6 28.c5 Rfh6 29.h3 Bxf3! 30.gxf3 Not 30.Bxf3? Rxh3+ 31.gxh3 Qxf3+
30...Rxh3+ 31.Kg2 e4 32.Bg1?
The only defense is 32.Qxh6! Rxh6 33.cxd6 Rxd6 34.Rfd1. 32...exf3+ 33.Rxf3
[33.Bxf3 Rg3+ 34.Kf2 Qxf3+] 33...Qe4 34.cxd6? [34.Kf2] 34...Rg6+! 35.Kf1
Alternatives: 35.Kxh3 Qg4+ 36.Kh2 Qg2#; 35.Kf2 Qh4+! 36.Ke3 (36.Kf1 Rxg1+! 37.Kxg1 Rh1+ 38.Kg2 Qh2#) 36...Qg5+ 37.Kf2 Rxf3+ 38.Kxf3 Qxd2]
35...Rxf3+ 36.Bxf3 Qxf3+ 37.Qf2 Qd3+ [37...Qd3+ 38.Qe2 Rxg1+] 0–1
Carag, Erwin — Almazan, R [B06]
MCC July op, 1993 1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.c3 Bg7 4.f4 Nd7 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bc4 e6 7.f5!? gxf5
[7...exf5 gives White the additional option of 8.Qb3 targeting f7. After 8...Qe7 9.0–0 Ngf6 (9...fxe4 is too greedy: 10.Ng5) 10.exf5 0–0 11.fxg6 hxg6 12.Re1 White firmly has the initiative] 8.exf5 d5 9.fxe6 fxe6 10.Ng5! Ndf6
[10...dxc4?? 11.Qh5+ Ke7 12.Qf7+]
11.Bb5+ Bd7 12.Be2 h5 13.0–0 Qe7 14.Bf4 0–0–0 15.Kh1 Nh6
Black has survived the first wave and castled his king to safety. White is not deterred and comes up with another attack. 16.Na3 a6 17.b4 cxd4
Trying to close the position does not work: 17...c4 18.Bxc4 dxc4 19.Nxc4 (threatening Nb6 mate) 19...Nd5 20.Nd6+ Kb8 21.Nf5+ wins the Black queen. 18.cxd4 Nf7
[18...Qxb4 19.Qc1+ Bc6 20.Nxe6]
19.Nxf7 Qxf7 20.Bd3 h4 21.b5 a5 22.Qa4 b6 23.Nc4!?
Faster is 23.Qc2+ Kb7 24.Qc7+ Ka8 25.Qxb6 but anyway Erwin had already seen the win so he does not deviate. 23...dxc4 24.Qxc4+ Kb7 25.Qc7+ Ka8 26.Qxb6 1–0
As you may have guessed as regards Erwin’s personal background and circumstances I am not that familiar. As a person though I have worked together with him and can vouch for his selfless nature. Most of our readers know that I quit all positions in the NCFP back in 2001 because of disappointment with the people I dealt with on a day-to-day basis. In fact, even in the NCFP Board of Directors there were too many whose only motivation was to line their pockets and figure out a way to get more money out of the federation. Erwin was not one of them.
I remember one day NM Tony Calvo and Erwin spoke to me about setting up the First Philippine Age Group Championship in the country. After some internal clearances I told them to just go about organizing the event and our friends in the Philippine Chess Society, especially sportsman Jerry Acuzar and then EVP of the Social Security System Horace Templo, will find a way to fund it.
In early 2001, the event came about with separate tournaments for boys and girls in the Under-8, Under-10, Under-12, Under-14, Under-16, Under-18 and Under-20 categories. It was a great success and the last event I handled before quitting the Federation.
Neither Tony Calvo nor Erwin Carag took a centavo for all the work they did. These two guys are real people — they were working for the good of chess and the development of our youth. With more people like them in the NCFP Board I would have been able to perform miracles. OK, and now for some good news. Last June 22, Ms. Janelle Mae Frayna graduated from the Far Eastern University with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology, cum laude. She was chosen as class valedictorian in recognition of her achievements both inside and outside the classroom.
As you may know Janelle is a Woman’s Grandmaster of Chess ( WGM), the first ever for the Philippines.
She is a unique combination of beauty and brains. We will try to do a full feature on her in a future column.