Antonio-led Quezon City vaults into solo chess lead

MANILA, Philippines – Quezon City humbled Mandaluyong City and Local Water Utilities Administration-Quezon City-A to grab the solo lead after the fourth round of the 2009 National Inter-Cities and Municipalities chess team championship Monday in Tarlac. GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. outdueled Dresden Olympiad veteran GM Buenaventura “Bong" Villamayor and Gary Legaspi trounced Jan Emmanuel Garcia to clinch the much-needed victories for Quezon City, which pulled off a 3-1 win over Mandaluyong City. Jerry Areque drew with Allan Cantonjos and Ilann Perez halved the point with Gary Garcia in the other two boards. In the fourth round, Perez subdued Xavier John Verdun to clinch the decisive victory in Quezon City’s 2.5-1.5 triumph over LWUA-A. It cam after Antonio halved the point with GM John Paul Gomez, Areque split the point with Jose Aquino Jr. and Legaspi called it a truce against Rainier Labay in the first three boards. Top seed Tagaytay City and LWUA-QC-F share second to third places with seven points based on the match point-style scoring system being used by the organizing National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). Tagaytay edged Pasig-Marfori, 2.5-1.5 on victories by Raymond Salcedo and Rhoel Abelgas over Samson Lim and Marlon Ricafort, respectively. GM Darwin Laylo of Tagaytay and IM Ronald Dableo of Pasig drew their match. Merben Roque saved the day for Pasig with a win over Allan Macala. Tagaytay, however, struggled to a 2-2 draw with LWUA-QC-F in the fourth round with Salcedo losing to Leo Daylo on board two and Macala winning over Franz Robert Grafil on board three. The matches pitting Laylo against Haridas Pascua and Abelgas against Jude Emil Fronda ended in fighting draws. LWUA-QC-F beat Antipolo City, 2.5-1.5 in the third round before drawing with Tagaytay. Six teams, led by Valenzuela City and FEU-FERN-Inton-QC, stay within striking distance with six points. Valenzuela, led by GM Mark Paragua and Vic Neil Villanueva, drew with Lingayen, 2-2, in the third round but won over Makati City, 3-1, the following round. Paragua settled for a draw with NM Mirabeua Maga while Villanueva upset six-time executive champion Jenny Mayor for a 2-2 draw. Villanueva, Ivan Gil Biag and Silverio Abasolo all won their matches against Makati to make up for Paragua’s loss to IM Richard Bitoon on the top board. FEU-FERN-Inton-QC dumped DepEd-Pasig-1, 3-1, and Calamba City, 2.5-1.5, to move into contention. –GMANews.TV