Villamayor rules All in Sports Expo 2010

MANILA, Philippines - Olympiad veteran GM Bong Villamayor beat unfancied Elorta in the final round to rule the Philippine Sports Commission “All in Sports Expo 2010” chess tournament at the PSC canteen over the weekend.

Villamayor finished off Elorta in 51 moves of the Slav for an eight-point total in the nine round tournament organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and supported by the PSC.

Villamayor actually finished tied for first place with GM Mark Paragua, who stunned veteran GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. But the former, a member of the 2008 RP team in the Dresden Olympiad, took the title with a superior tiebreak score.

Villamayor and Paragua, however, split the combined P50,000 purse.

“It feel good. It’s a nice feeling to finally win again. It’s really been a long while,” said Villamayor.

Elorta wound up with seven points then nipped nine others in the tiebreak for third place honors.

Other nine pointers were World Cup veteran Wesley So and GM Darwin Laylo.

Roel Abelgas finished fourth, followed by Deniel Causo, Laylo, Ronald Llavanes, Rolando Nolte, So and Nelson Villanueva in that order.

Antonio, seeded second here behind So, and GM Jayson Gonzales finished in a group with 6.5 points.

Sherily Cua emerged as the top female participant.

A total of 178 players saw action in the two-day competition, with NCFP executive/event director Willie Abalos as the tournament director and FA Lito Abril as the supervising arbiter.