Ambuang, Grafil sweep way to Shell chess finals

Michel Ambuang and Franz Robert Grafil kept the momentum of their romp in the first four rounds as they posted three more victories to complete a sweep of their respective divisions in the Mindanao leg (Zamboanga City) of the 14th Shell National Youth Active Chess Championships at the Ateneo gym in Zamboanga over the weekend.

Ambuang, playing out of Jose Rizal Memorial State College in Dipolog City, toppled top seed Paulo Florendo in a crucial final round encounter to rule the juniors division with seven points and tow two others into the grand finals of the annual event sponsored by Pilipinas Shell. He earlier defeated Abdurahman Ahmad and Patrick Florendo.

Brene Parreno of University of Mindanao-Davao City scored 2.5 points in the last three rounds, including a final round victory over Rodney Opada to finish second with 6.5 points while James Mark Ruiz, of Polanco National High School-Zamboanga Del Sur, bounced back from a fifth round loss to Paulo Florendo with victories over Edgardo Dequito Jr. and Julmin Kunding for six points. He then nipped four others in the tiebreak to claim the third and last spot in the grand finals slated Oct. 21-22 at SM North Edsa.

Grafil, a mainstay of the Philippine Christian University, trounced Joy Feliciano, Brandon Calapardo and Herbert Napalcruz to finish with perfect score then edged Niko Soler in the tiebreak to bag the kiddies crown in the event which served as the final leg of an eight-nationwide circuit backed by Shell Super Premium, Shell Super Unleaded, Shell V-Power; Shell Diesoline Ultra, Shellane, McDonald’s and Cebu Pacific in cooperation with SM Supermalls.

Soler, one of the top bets of WMSU, bested Glenmoure Bactol, Johnas Biongco and Neptali Batucan III to likewise finish with seven points but had to settle for second place. Batucan clinched third place despite that final round loss to Soler as he wound up with six points then nipped nine others for the last spot in the national finals with a superior tiebreak score.

On hand to award the prizes were Ricky Altonaga, retail regional manager for Mindanao of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Ian Tan, retail territory manager, Zamboanga Peninsula of Pilipinas Shell and Zamboanga City councilor Rudy Lim.

Also cited were Western Mindanao State University-Zamboanga City for fielding in the most number of entries both in the kiddies (37) and juniors (34) categories, Eibtizam Nahudan of WMSU, who copped the top female award (kiddies) with six points, and five-year-old Khadija Sahak, also of WMSU, the tournament’s youngest player.