JEDDAH, 27 December 2002 — It has often been said in chess parlance that “the hardest thing to do in chess is win a won game”. How often has a chess player crowed about a position’s superiority, only to see it fall apart like a house cards? Said scenario happened on the 6th game of the 2002 Nescafe Chess Open tournament, which is being sponsored by Nescafe-the swiss quality- Saudi Arabia, between Pong “Vladimir” Mandap and Glen Orlina Jr. in Group-A category. Pong “Vladimir” Mandap of Rabya Trading and Contracting Co., playing in white pieces executed his favorite D4 opening. Glen Orlina reciprocated with a jump of his knight in F6 square, an early divergence from the Budapest Gambit game.
Moves 2, 3, and 4 witnessed the showdown of pawns of both protagonists to control the center field. Orlina’s pawn E4 on the 3rd move seemed to be a major thrust, but it was left unguarded. Orlina’s black queen piece standing cute on D5 square, following the exchange of pawn on the 10th move, a tandem of 2 knights in D7 and F6 squares respectively, and a bishop securely posted in the strategic e6 square appeared to be advantageous for him. His position was disrupted a little bit, when the queen piece was threatened by Mandap’s rook move in B6 square on the 16th , however with no effect.
Orlina move of RR1 on the 20th seemed to be sketchy as it served no purpose and lost of tempo. On the 22nd Mandap made a bad move after executing pawn to A4 thereby weakening his B3 pawn. Orlina could have capitalized the error caused by Mandap, but missed a good move (knight B6 instead of NC3), which eventually led to giving Mandap enough time to create a counter play. Orlina’s “riches to rags” debacles were caused by misreading the position and lacking deep analysis of the situation. Orlina’s knight after jumping in C3 was instantly captured by Mandap’s bishop.
Orlina’s bishop capture of opponent’s B3 pawn was not an equal trade off as it did not compensate him for his knight loss in addition to the pressure inflected on his C6 pawn. Moves 27 and onward witnessed Mandap’s rampaging queen and rook pieces resulting to losses of major pieces for Orlina, and eventually resigned on the 34th that catapulted Mandap to the championship round. Rick Amper, who recuperated from his losses in the earlier rounds, gained consciousness with 3 successive wins on the following rounds and tasted sweet victory against Bong Marquez in round 6 in a Sicilian opening game. Both protagonist showed their mastery of handling said game with a balance counter-play on the first 10 moves. It was on the 11th move that Amper prevailed over Marquez in a position, where Amper was able to break Marquez grip on the center with his close knit pawn. The retreat of Marquez’s knight on B3 square on the 12th was indeed a great opportunity for Amper to intrude the D4 frontier with his pawn, instead he moved his Bishop to E3 let alone to initiate a counter attack. Marquez sensing the intrusive quality of Amper’s two knights backed up by the queen, decided to play passively through hit and run approach. In the middle game, Amper was able to utilize his major pieces especially the two active knights, which did most of the action of counter attacking and threatening Marquez pieces during the 13th to 25th moves.
Amper pawn moved in A3 on the 26th surprised Marquez, as Amper established his post waiting for any slight edge to bulldoze Marquez’s King territory. It was not an easy job for Amper due to the presence of heavy forces of bishop, knight and rook. There was no other way for Amper , but to exchange artillery fires in order to clear the way for his tandem of queen and rook pieces to inflict damage on the kingside. Marquez give up his fight on the 37th lest suffer heavy casualties of his major pieces including the king. Fierce encounters witnessed in Group-B primarily between Zulameen Puti and Alexander Dampil in a four knights’ game in round 6. Puti, who earned his championship norm from the previous rounds smoothly employed his vast repertoire of opening moves.
His excellent handling of two nights penetrating enemies line was remarkable. He was able to established posts in D5 and E5 territory unperturbed. Moreover, he successfully connected a pawn chain in D,E and F4 squares thereby creating a solid defense and a strategic place to launch an attack toward opponent’s king in G file. To counter the clear and eminent attack, Dampil resorted to a “blitzkrieg” but to no avail due to time constraint and eventually resigned on the 29th move. Jaime De Leon, who missed his champion norm, played in white pieces against Henry Guiao. De Leon executed his e4 move on the initial stage that resulted to a Ruy Lopez game after 5 series of moves. (Ding F. Estraza)
