PCAP: Pasig takes down San Juan, Laguna

MANILA, Philippines – It isn’t enough to atone for the Northern Division finals loss. However, it will have to do for now and give San Juan something to chew on.

The Pasig King Pirates rallied from a 4.5-2.5 deficit in blitz chess to crush the San Juan Predators in rapid chess, 11-3, for a 13.5-7.5 win to take the leaderboard position in their group in the Wesley So Cup of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines.

With GM Kevin Goh unavailable, IM Ildefonso Datu slid into Board 1 where he outclassed IM Rolando Nolte and claimed all three points in their battles. 

In rapid chess, GM Mark Paragua got back at FM Nelson Mariano III as did IM Cris Ramayrat, who upended San Juan’s GM Viktor Moskalenko, while IM Sherily Cua won both her matches against Mary Segarra. This was enough to offset their losses on the homegrown boards of San Juan.

In the last All-Filipino Cup, the King Pirates’ homegrown boards owned their San Juan counterparts. That is until the northern division finals. This time, the Predators got a slim 5.5-3.5 advantage in the lower three boards, but were ultimately unable to overhaul their losses in the top four boards.

In the King Pirates second match of the evening, they blasted the Laguna Heroes, 14.5-6.5, to go to 3-0 in the Northern Division.

San Juan got back on track in their second game of the evening’s double-header, 13-8.