8th straight win for NIR Kingsmen in PCAP

NEGROS Island Region Kingsmen recorded its eighth straight victory in the 2023 Professional Chess Association of the Philippines First Conference after a sweep of their Wednesday night matches.

The Kingsmen opened the evening with a 16-5 domination of Cagayan Kings before they followed it up with a 15-6 victory over Manila Indios Bravos as they remained on top of Southern Division standings with 18-1 record.

Against the Kings, the Negrenses scored a 5-2 victory in the blitz event behind the full points of David Elorta, Mari Jose Turquiza, Rogelio Antonio Jr., Ellan Asuela, and Joel Pimentel.

The Kingsmen also prevailed over Cagayan in the rapid game, 11-3, as Turquiza, Antonio, Asuela, Pimentel and Jerich Cajeras scoring two points each and Elorta settling for a split.

With the Indios Bravos as their opponent, the Kingsmen hacked out a 6-1 victory in blitz game behind full points by Elorta, Turquiza, Asuela, Pimentel, and Ted Ian Montoyo and splits by Bernadette Galas and Antonio.

The Kingsmen also prevailed over the Indios Bravos in the rapid event, 9-5, behind Elorta, Galas and Asuela’s full two points and split points courtesy of Turquiza, Antonio and Montoyo.

“These are good morale boosting wins as we are now heading back to the South to face our rival Southern teams one more time in a single round-robin format,” said Kingsmen co-team owner Antonio Olendo.

Unlike the Kingsmen, luck was not on the side of the Iloilo Kisela Knights as they suffered back-to-back defeats to Indios Bravos (14-7) and Laguna-Dasmarinas City (13-8) to drop to 11-8.

Against Indios Bravos, the Kisela Knights bowed in the blitz event (4-3) and rapid game (10-4), while versus Laguna, the Ilonggos won in the blitz game (4-3) before bowing in rapid (10-4).

“It was tough losses for us but are good learning experiences for our team,” said Kisela Knights head coach Hubert Canto. “We will definitely bounce back as we head back to facing our Southern Division groupmates.”/PN