By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
DAVAO region has capitalized on the absence of Grandmaster Enrico Sevillano to snap the winning streak of Surigao Fianchetto Checkmates via a hair-raising one-point squeaker, 30.5-29.5 in their recent online duel on 15 boards for the ongoing 2021 Mindanao Friendship Chess Tour.
The Surigao Checkmaters, who earlier crushed the Caraga selection, 44-12, and nipped Northern Mindanao, 30.5-29.5, will wrap up their series of chess matches today against the Zamboanga Sultans of Western Mindanao.
“It was a thrilling down-the-wire goodwill match contest. One point ra gyod nagdaug. Anyway, congrats to the rest of our team, and big thanks to the Surigao Fianchetto of Engr. Rey Urbiztondo for giving us the opportunity to play and have a tune-up for our upcoming participation in the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines tourney as a guest team,” said lawyer Jong Guevarra Jr.
A balanced scoring effort enabled the Davao Executives Chess Society to survive the immaculate performance of Surigao’s Lennon Hart Salgados, Tyrone Alaan, and Joselito Serna, who all went 4 of 4 in their respective boards, to carry the fight for the Checkmaters who missed the services of Cebuano GM and US Open 2008 champion Sevillano, owing to an over-the-board competition in California that he participated.
The Davawenyos edged Surigao, 8-7 then went for the decisive 9.5 to 5.5 breakthrough in the second round of the blitz tussle behind the perfect showing of Engr. Aglipay Oberio, Denzel Amar, Reynaldo De Guzman, Engr. Napoleon Recososa, Alfred Moulic, Atty. Melzar Galicia and lady enforcer Mary Israel Palero-Segarra.
The Surigao Fianchetto retaliated in the rapid showdown, beating the Davao execs, 17-13 with Arena Grandmaster Henry Lopez, Antonio Chavez Jr., Cyrus Donasco, and Engr. Allan Diez joining the explosive troika of Salgados, Alaan, and Serna in the winning fray.
But Surigao’s equally impressive four-point romp off in the last round was not enough to outmaneuver Davao’s hot start.
“One of our players (Roberto Reyna) went to Siargao island and lost by default kay wala man diay signal dadtong dapita. I tried to force a slight winning game on my board for the equalizer, but got blundered instead,” said Urbiztondo.
Both Surigao and the Zamboanga Sultans will see action in the third conference of PCAP, the country’s second professional league next to PBA, in September this year.
A total of P5,000 in cash prizes were given to participants in the Surigao-Davao match-up, while another P3,000 purse awaits in the Surigao-Zamboanga finale.
Helping Urbiztondo in organizing the Mindanao series matches are Caraga’s Jun Cabiguin and Bobot Medrano and Northern Mindanao’s Engr. Jun Gunayan with the assistance of Fr Vic Arellano as well as International Arbiter (IA) James Infiesto of Southern Mindanao-Davao and Prof. Rey Reyes of Western Mindanao/ Zamboanga.
