Baguio boys top Shell chessfest

AGOO, LA Union — Baguio boys Danilo de Luna and Alex Siblagan both booked 7.0 points in as many games to top their respective sections in the North Luzon segment of 2002 Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship.

Unheralded de Luna tamed tough Ricardo Savador III of Sta. Cruz, Manila in 42 moves of a Queen’s Gambit Declined in the final round to cap a six-game win streak. De luna earned a national finals seat, the junior division gold medal and P5,000.

Top-seeded Rey Jomar Magallanes of Makati City finished at second with 6.5 points (six wins, a draw) for a finals seat, the silver medal and P4,000.

Tarlac State University bet Francis Dimarucut grabbed third place, the bronze plus P3,000. La Union’s Fernan Quiban settled for fourth place worth P2,000.

With his last round loss to the junior division champion, Salvador tumbled down to fifth place and went home P1,000 richer.

No. 151 seed Siblagan of Baguio City’s St. Louis High School clawed his way up the kiddie section rungs with six straight triumphs, capped by a last round win in a 40-move toe-to-toe Queen Pawn’s brawl with Tarlac’s Nephi Manuel.

Siblagan earned a finals seat, gold medal plus P4,000 while Manuel wound up in fifth place worth P500.

Also earning a slot in the grand finals plus the silver and P3,000 is second-placer John Paul Lucena, a Tagudin National High School sophomore in Magsaysay, Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

With his fourth place finish, 12-year-old Marco Polo Rosales of Alicia, Isabela got the bronze and P2,000.

The "Youngest Player" awardee, six-year old Jerusalem Galvez, fared creditably with five wins and two losses in the seven-round Swiss system tournament sanctioned by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

Ten-year-old Kenn Rienzi Camacho garnered the Atty. Art Borjal Award worth P1,500.

Agoo town mayor Dr. Frany Eriguel, Agoo Chess Club president Florante Ballecer and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation national chess tournament organizer Teddy Bolivar gave the "Most Represented School Award" to Agoo Computer College that fielded 17 entries.