San Juan, Manila win PCAP 3rd Conference opener

MANILA, Philippines – A little shuffle here. A little shuffle there. Now it looks like the San Juan Predators, twice denied in the previous two conferences of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines, have more flexibility up and down the line.

With GM Oliver Barbosa moving up to Board 1 and IM Rolando Nolte on Board 2, they took 4.5 out of six possible points against the IMs Paulo Bersamina and Jem Garcia of the Caloocan LoadManna Knights. However, FM Arden Reyes, moving down to the homegrown boards, had to settle for draws in both blitz and rapid play against Caloocan’s Nelson Villanueva.

The Predators got crucial points from senior player IM Ricky de Guzman and Narquingel Reyes to fashion out a 125-8.5 win over North Division power Caloocan in the opening night of the PCAP-San Miguel Corporation-Ayala Land Premier Cup.

As for the Manila Indios Bravos, the huge addition of IM Chito Garma on Board 1 ((GM Ino Sadorra was unavailable) was nullified by Laguna Heroes’ GM Banjo Barcenilla, who took both blitz and rapid plays. 

The recent poor form of Armageddon King AJ Literatus continued as his Manila counterpart on Board 2, IM John Marvin Miciano nullified Barcenilla’s advantage.

Laguna took a slim 4-3 lead after blitz chess, and come the rapid boards, the lower half of Manila’s order – IM Cris Ramayrat, US NM Ryan Dungca, FM Edgardo Garma, and CM Genghis Imperial took six of the eight possible points for a 9-5 advantage that translated into a 12-9 win over the Heroes.

Other big winners were the Rizal Batch Towers who despite losing Nolte to San Juan defeated the unpredictable but dangerous Cagayan Kings, 12.5-8.5.

Pasig crushed Cavite 16.5-4.5 while Olongapo squeaked past Isabela, 11-10.