MANILA, Philippines — Talk about making an opening day statement.
The Iloilo Kisela Knights, defending Wesley So Cup champions, opened the tournament with a 21-0 thumping of the Pagadian Costbusters.
It was the first time in PCAP’s two-year history where a team opened any of the three conferences of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines with a clean sheet.
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It was a rude welcome to PCAP for the Pagadian squad who are making their PCAP debut.
Iloilo’s shutout was the 15th in league history. San Juan has the most shutouts with three. Last year’s guest squad, Pengcheng, was shut out 10 times during last year’s Reinforced Conference. At one point, Pengcheng failed to score a single point in five consecutive matches.
Also sending an opening day message is that squad tugging on the superhero capes of Iloilo’s GM Joey Antonio and GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan… the Davao Chess Eagles.
Buoyed by their late addition of GM Darwin Laylo who is fresh off a Southeast Asian Games medal, Davao laid waste to Tacloban, 20-1. The only point they dropped was a draw between their homegrown player Aglipay Oberio and Tacloban’s Remegio Galenzoga in blitz play.
Davao finished second to Iloilo during the All Filipino Cup elimination round as well as the play-offs. Laylo’s addition takes off the pressure from FM Sander Severino who manned Board 1 and somewhat struggled unlike during his first stint in last season’s third tournament, the Open Conference where he stunned foes.
Laylo was unceremoniously cut from the Pasig King Pirates on the same day he brought home a silver medal in blitz chess for the Philippines in SEA Games action.
His old squad in the meantime opened their Wesley So Cup account by clocking Olongapo, 16.5-4.5.
GM Mark Paragua, senior player Rudy Ibañez, and their sparkling homegrown cadre of IM Eric Labog Jr., Jerome Villanueva, and IM Cris Ramayrat won all their matches to lead the rout.