Elegant Houses rules Pacquiao Random chess tourney

GENERAL SANTOS City-Elegant Houses in Pampanga bested NICA Team Ilonggo and Pacman Team A in the tiebreaker to rule the Bobby D. Pacquiao Random Chess tournament Tuesday night at SM City Trade Hall 2 here.

Powered by Grandmaster Darwin Laylo, Elegant Houses dumped Bobby Pacquiao C, 4-0, to gain the edge over NICA and Pacman A which tallied 2.5-1.5 victories over erstwhile pacesetters Gensan Omicrons and Novelty Chess Club-Bulacan, respectively.

Laylo, who wound up as board 1 topnotcher, downed GM Jayson Gonzales in their tussle while Edsel Montoya, Norman Longjas and Gerry Millan completed the romp with victories over Alfredo Rapanot, Kevin Mirano and Elnathan Emilio in the lower boards.

Though Elegant Houses, NICA and Pacman A wound up with similar 12 match points each, the shutout gave Elegant Houses 21 points overall. NICA had 20.5 and Pacman A 18.5.

While Elegant Houses took the team title, NICA and Pacman A got their share of the bounty as the three teams bagged P320,000 each after splitting the top three total purses of P500,000, P280,000 and P180,000.

The individual rapid competition of the event organized by Asia first GM Eugene Torre started yesterday with 119 entries vying for the top purse of P60,000.

As expected titled players led by GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. and defending champion IM Ronald Dableo took the early lead with 2.0 points each. Bunched with them were IMs Oliver Dimakiling, Haridas Pascua, Kim Steven Yap, Rolando Nolte and Salcedo, among others.