MANILA – Negros Kingsmen ruled the Southern Division of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines 3rd Conference by defeating Davao Chess Eagles in the division finals on Wednesday evening.
The Kingsmen leaned on the exploits of veterans Joel Pimentel and David Elorta in the Armageddon round to defeat the Chess Eagles, 2-1, and move to their first-ever PCAP finals appearance.
Pimentel prevailed over Davao’s Austin Jacob Literatus, while Elorta turned back Dale Bernardo. Kingsmen’s Mari Jose Turquisa was the lone casualty in the tiebreaker against Negrense Sander Severino of Davao.
Prior to that, the Kingsmen pulled off a 12-9 win over Davao in the first leg of two-leg division finals following a 9-5 victory in the rapid game and close 3-4 loss in the blitz category.
The Kingsmen got two points each from Bernadette Galas (Board 3), Edmundo Gatus (Board 4), Ellan Asuela (Board 5) and Pimentel (Board 7) in the rapid event and a split point with Turquiza (Board 1).
The Negrenses, however, faltered in the blitz category with only Elorta (Board 2), Gatus and Pimentel netting the full one point, while their other teammates faltered to the Chess Eagles.
The Chess Eagles bounced back in the second leg of the division finals in lopsided fashion, 17-4, following a 5-2 domination in the blitz and 12-2 rout in the rapid to send the game to a tiebreaker.
Kingsmen co-team manager Nayk Segismar said that reaching the PCAP finals for the first time in their franchise history is a huge achievement but they are will to go for the gold against Pasig City Pirates.
“This is a huge achievement for the Negros Kingsmen but, now that we have a chance to go on top, we will definitely go for it,” Segismar said. “No one expected us to reach this far so we want to go even farther.”
During the Kingsmen’s regular season encounter with the Pirates last October 15, they suffered a stinging 13.5-7.5 defeat as both squads finished the blitz event at 3.5-3.5 before the Negrenses lost to Pasig in the rapid game, 10-4./PN
