Maroons, Tigresses capture chess crowns

University of the Philippines (UP) ran away with the men’s crown, while Santo Tomas U took the women’s title in the UAAP Season 68 chess tournament that wrapped up Sunday at the University of the East Briefing Room.

The Maroons played a calculated season, winding up its campaign with a 14th-round 3-1 victory over Ateneo during the weekend to amass 39.0 points, beating dethroned champion De La Salle by 1.5 points.

The Green Archers nevertheless saw ace John Paul Gomez keeping the board one gold medal and more importantly, the men’s Most Valuable Player award.

Rounding out the men’s chess finish were UST third with 37.0 points, UE fourth with 32.5, Far Eastern fifth with 29.5, Adamson sixth with 24.0, Ateneo seventh with 18.5 and National U eighth with 5.5.

UST only watched the opposition play each other over the weekend as it drew the season’s last bye and danced itself to the title with 33.0 points, in the process frustrating Season 67 titlist UP, which with its 30 points could only rank third behind De La Salle (30.5) this season.

The women’s chess standings for the season saw FEU finish fourth with 24.5, followed by Ateneo with 20.5, UE 16.5 and NU with 13.0.

UP got its consolation on board one with Catherine Perena winning the gold medal and the MVP tiara. Other board gold medalists in the women’s section were FEU’s Rulp Ylem Jose on board two and Cherrlyn Guiang on board three, La Salle’s Jennifer Advincula on board four and UST’s Danielle Day Estrada and Geneline Ramos on boards five and six, respectively.

Board winners in the men’s side besides Gomez were UE’s Reymond Baon on board two, UST’s Arnold Dableo on board three, UP’s Omar Bagalacsa on board four and Jan Vincent Paragua also of UST on board five.

UE won the juniors crown which ended the other week. Board winners were UE’s Nelson Mariano III who was also MVP on board one, Aices Salvador also of UE on board two, Ateneo’s Joseph Cayanan on board three, Adrian Perez and Joshua Bersamina also both of UE on boards four and five, respectively, and Dan Mark Cahigan of UST.

Also over the weekend in volleyball at the UP gym in Diliman, FEU defeated UP, 19-25, 25-13, 26-24, 23-25, 15-7, and UST beat Adamson, 25-18, 25-15, 28-26, in the men’s semifinals, while Adamson downed FEU, 17-25, 25-15, 25-23,25-19, and De La Salle stopped UST, 25-14, 25-17, 25-23.

The race to the finals will be held Thursday also at the UP gym with Game One in the men’s side between reigning titlist FEU and UST set at 2 p.m. and the opener in the women’s contest between defending champion De La Salle and Adamson scheduled at 3. Both will be aired live on Studio 23.

Game two will be next Wednesday (Oct. 5) on the same time slots. If a game three is necessary, it will be played Oct. 8.