By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
San Juan, Negros and Iloilo bested their rivals to remain unscathed in the third conference of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) online tournament over the weekend.
The San Juan Predators edged the Manila Indios Bravos, 11.5-9.5; the Negros Kingsmen dumped the Lapu-Lapu City Naki Warriors, 17-4; and the Iloilo Kisela Knights crushed the Surigao Fianchetto Checkmates, 18-3, to remain unbeaten in three appearances.
San Juan stayed at the helm in the Northern Division, while Negros and Iloilo share the top leaderboard in the Southern Division.
Woman International Master Jan Jodelyn Fronda and Narciso Gumila carried the fight for San Juan with victories over Woman National Master Mira Mirano and Genghis Imperial in their blitz and rapid events, respectively, while Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa drew his two matches against IM Ronald Dableo.
Delivering triumphs for the Predators in the blitz were brothers FIDE Master Narquinden and Narquingel Reyes, while IM Ricardo De Guzman and Narquinden Reyes split the point with IM Cris Ramayrat Jr and IM Chito Garma in their rapid duels.
Meanwhile, Negros swept all its seven blitz matches while winning five in rapid courtesy of FM Randy Segarra, Rowelyn Joy Acedo, National Master Jenny Mayor, Adrian Dela Cruz and NM Rolzon Roullo.
Iloilo, for its part, dominated the rapid event with six wins and one draw, and the blitz with five victories against two defeats.
Trailing behind San Juan in the Northern Division were Pasig, Laguna, Manila and Rizal with 2-1 marks, while Caloocan, Isabela, Olongapo, and Cagayan tote identical 1-2 records. Cavite remained winless after three appearances.
Toledo and Surigao, meanwhile, trail behind Negros and Iloilo in the Southern Division, followed by Camarines (2-0), Lapu-Lapu (1-2), Palawan (1-1), Iriga (0-2), Cordova (0-3), Cebu (0-2) and Mindoro (0-2).
