INTERNATIONAL Master Daniel Maravilla Quizon proved that he’s now in the elite class of Philippine chess.

The 17-year-old Quizon played through undefeated to become the youngest and the smallest participant to rule the 2021 Philippine National Chess Championship concluded on Tuesday night, December 14 at the plush Solea Hotel and Resort in Mactan, Cebu.

Quizon, who comes from Dasmariñas City, Cavite, scored 8.5 points on six wins and five draws to pocket the P80,000 top purse, plus a guaranteed slot to the national squad bound for the 2023 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Thailand.

The small but terrible Quizon capped his unbeaten run with a draw with veteran IM Ronald Dableo in the final eleventh round that saw three victories produced by second-running IM Ricardo de Guzman (seven pts), IM Joel Pimentel, and the previously winless Allan Pason.

Still, IM Ronald Dableo and Grandmaster Darwin Laylo shared the third spot with a similar 6.5-point total.

The second and third placers received P50,000 and P25,000, respectively.

The fired-up Quizon, who wiped out all the three GMs ― Laylo, Janelle Mae Frayna, and Rogelio Antonio Jr ― midway through the 12-player round-robin affair, actually sealed the crowning glory right in the penultimate 10th-round.

This, after he drew with IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia, the slow-starting IM John Marvin Miciano summoned all his strength to surprise Quizon’s closest pursuer IM Ronald Dableo in 38 moves of the London System.

GM Rogelio ‘Joey’ Antonio Jr, the oldest at 59 and the winningest competitor with 13 titles to show in the National Open, had cited earlier the Philippine Team stalwarts Bersamina, 23, and Garcia, 26 as the players to beat in this year’s edition.

Until the much younger Quizon came to surprise them all.

“We always look up to Cuizon’s performance on the other side of the playing hall because he’s young and talented and is full of promises. We’re very excited about the future of this little boy,” remarked candidate Fide Master Jaime Joshua Frias II, who was competing in the 2021 Philippine National Mactan Open held at the same venue.

Probably Quizon’s most difficult game in the six-day contest organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) with the theme ‘Barkadahan Para sa Bansa’ came in the seventh round against the unheralded Pason.

In that match, Quizon struggled all the way and had to dig deeper into his endgame resolve to neutralize Pason’s dangerous passed pawn and forced a draw after a marathon 62 moves of a double fianchetto Modern defense.

Pason could not be denied, however, in the last round as he scored his only victory against IM Michael Concio Jr after 32 moves against the g3-opening as De Guzman and Pimentel also triumphed with black opposite Antonio, and Miciano, respectively.

“We just hope that Quizon’s resounding success won’t escape the probing eyes of the country’s chess authorities. The boy is a jewel that needs to be nurtured like GM Wesley So who’s now representing the US,” said National Master Levi Mercado, who followed the Mactan skirmishes game notations through Chessbomb.com.

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Final standings after round 11:

8.5 pts ― IM Daniel Quizon
7.0 pts ― IM Ricardo de Guzman
6.5 pts ― IM Ronald Dableo, GM Darwin Laylo
6.0 pts ― IM Joel Pimentel, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia
5.5 pts ― IM John Marvin Miciano, IM Paulo Bersamina
4.5 pts ― GM Rogelio “Joey” Antonio Jr.
4.0 pts ― WGM Janelle Mae Frayna
3.0 pts ― Allan Pason, IM Michael Concio Jr.