Davao Fails to Qualify

Despite enjoying the services of the country's highest rated player, Mark Paragua, the team of Davao City "A" failed to enter the semi-final phase of the 2006 Philippines Inter-cities event.

But Paragua can console himself for having secured the individual gold medal on board 1 on account of his 6.5/7 points performance. Pinoy journo Marlon Bernardino informs me that the grandmaster's only draw was against national master (NM) Cedric Magno. Below is a game by RP's number one.

2006 Philippines Inter-cities
White: GM Mark Paragua (Davao City "A")
Black: NM Rodrigo Atotubo (Escalante City)
Opening: Scotch Opening

1.e4-e5 2.Nf3-Nc6 3.d4-ed4 4.Nd4-Nf6 5.Nc6-bc6 6.e5-Qe7 7.Qe2-Nd5 8.c4-Ba6 9.b3-Qh4 10.a3-Bc5 11.g3-Bf2 12.Qf2-Qe4 13.Kd2-Qh1 14.Bb2-Rb8 15.b4-Nb6 16.Nc3-c5 17.Nd5-Nd5 18.Bd3-Qa1 19.Ba1-Ne7 20.Qc5-Rb6 21.Qc7-Rc6 22.Qa7-Bc4 23.Be4-Rc8 24.Bb7-Rd8 25.Qc5-Be6 26.b5-h5 27.Bc3-d6 28.ed6 1-0

Teams to compete in the semi-finals are:

Barangay Alabang (Muntinlupa “V”) 6.5 points
PNP-Quezon City 6.0 points
Carrascal (Surigao del Sur) 5.5 points
Tagaytay City 5.0 points

Defending champs Tagaytay City and bannered by GM Rogelio Antonio actually finised on a similar score of 5 match points with the Madrid team from Surigao del Sur. However, Tagaytay had the superior game points score of 19 to Surigao's 17 points overall.

IM Darwin Laylo, Pic courtesy of Marlon Bernardino