JEDDAH, 23 November — Glen Orlina captured the championship trophy in Group B category of 2001 Nescafe Chess Open held at the Tropicana Restaurant. Orlina, fresh from his sweet victory against erstwhile leader Ed Cruz II in 6th round faced fellow top contender Raymund Reamon in the final round. Orlina, playing with black pieces, challenged the opening repertoire of Reamon’s Queen gambit game and declined the exchange in 3rd move in order to neutralize white’s opening advantage. Orlina bf5, e6 and Bg4 piece maneuvering in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively appeared to be a tactical moves as it avoid permanent congestion of his position and achieve level prospects. Both protagonists appeared to avoid direct confrontation, and inclined to build their respective fortress as they have securely hide their respective king pieces in king’s castle. Orlina Qb5 move on the 12th strive to fracture Reamon queenside with the "minority attack" (a5) in order to create and fix a pawn weakness on b4 or a4 squares. On the 18th, Reamon’s bishop landing in G4 Square seemed useless as Orlina only captured it with his waiting bishop in b7. After a series of piece maneuvering and with major pieces left on the board, Orlina secured a better position against Reamon’s disarray of pawn pieces, which turned the game in favor of Orlina.
Meanwhile, unheralded Group-A player Mohammed Budair surprised everyone with his stunning victory over Rajak Omar in the final round. After he dismantled Librado Lacsado Jr. Queen’s Gambit declined game in round 6. Budair unleashed his tactical weapon against Rajak Omar. At the initial stage, Budair employed his customary d4 opening, which was answered back by Rajak with knight’s move in f6 square that progressively resulted in a Catalan encounter. Rajak resign on a grueling match of 33 moves.
Following his loss to Muhammad Budair and his failed championship norm on the 6th round, Lacsado Jr. let loose his strength and demolished the Sicilian Defense game of 2000 Nescafe champion, Rick Amper in the final round.
When two of the top giants, Pong "Vladimir" Mandap faced Rajak Omar, who was vying for top place nobody was surprised that a fantastic battle emerged even from a very quiet Sicilian opening game. Players will take note that Mandap appeared to have little success against Rajak’s sharp opening and this may have led him to try b5 in the 6th move in order to cause disarray of Rajak’s pawn pieces in queen side castle, where his king piece securely bask. In this match, Rajak was able to establish enough piece activity and willing to engage immediate hostilities after obtaining control of the center by the tandem of bishop pieces in d3 and e3 squares. He even made use of his pawn in F3 Square to further strengthen his grip of the center in case Mandap make some sacrificial move with his knight piece in F6 Square. The game appeared equally controlled by both sides after 17 moves, except on the 25th move when Rajak’s knight made a brilliant "Hara Kere" move to f4 square followed by Ne5, double checking Mandap’s king and queen pieces. Mandap has no choice was to trade off his queen piece against Rajak’s rook and knight pieces to counter the threat. This trade off seemed logical as it weakened Rajak’s center defense and at the same time it allowed mobility of his other major pieces with the prospect of launching an attack in the opponent’s kingside. Surprisingly, Rajak made a exchange queen sacrifice by capturing Mandap’s rook in e5, which was reciprocated by Mandap rook’s move in e8 square thereby capturing Rajak’s queen piece However, Mandap overlooked Rajak eventual rook d7 move on the 37th as a result he lost his bishop piece. Finally Mandap resigned on the 38th moves.
Next on the winning run, 1997 Nescafe Patrick Ramirez, who earned a point in a near-loss position against Rey Muldong in earlier round, dismantled the Caro Kann defense of Yusuf Galindo in the final round. Jonathan Aguilar won over Bong Marquez by default in round 6 and easily defeated unheralded newcomer Mohammad Irshad in the final round and luckily landed in the magic 5 circle. Bert Malibiran, swiftly defeated Badib Usman in round 6 and Rommel Tan in the final round, but short a point to be in the winning circle. Rey Muldong won against Joe Soliven in the final round.
Final results:
Group B- Champion-Glen Orlina, 1st runner-up Ed Cruz II 2nd runner-up Agra Renato, 3rd runner-up Ablagon Ruperto, 4th runner-up Reamon Raymund, 5th runner-up Valle Eddie, 6th runner up Casana Rommel, 7th runner-up Andrada Ramon 8th runner-up Franco Joey, 9th runner-up San Jose Ely.
Group A Champion - Mohammed Budair Hussein, 1st runner-up Lacsado Jr. Librado 2nd runner-up Ramirez Patrick 3rd runner-up Aguilar Jonathan 4th runner-up Rajak Omar.
