Francois Marie Magpily kept her poise in the stretch then nipped four others in the tiebreak to capture the juniors crown and also the Top Female award in the Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship’s NCR leg held at the SM Mall of Asia Music Hall last Sunday.
The No. 6 Magpili, who swept her first five games in impressive fashion, upended fifth seed Earl Mantilla and No. 9 Cedrick Gaddi at resumption then bounced back from an eighth round loss to top seed Julius Gonzales with a final round draw with No. 8 Michael Erese to finish with 7.5 points.
Gonzales, Erese, Carl Ancheta and Joshua Navarro also wound up with 7.5 points but Magpily, playing out of
Gen. Pio del Pilar National High School, took the crown on superior tiebreak score to become the first female player to win an overall division crown.
Erese, from Arellano University, took the runner-up honors while Gonzales of La Salle Greenhills edged Ancheta and Navarro for third and the last berth in the national finals of the 25th staging of the country’s longest talent-search sponsored by Pilipinas Shell.
Sharing top honors were Cyrus Francisco of San Beda and Far Eastern U ace Dale Bernardo, who ruled the kiddies and seniors categories, respectively, of the second leg of the five-stage regional elims sanctioned by the NCFP.
