GM So-led Tagaytay rules inter-province chess tourney

Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So proved unstoppable at the top board to lead Tagaytay City to the 2011 National Inter-Province chess team championship crown late Tuesday night at the Cabagbot Training Center in Kalibo, Aklan. So completed a rare sweep of his board one assignments when he outduelled rising star Paulo Bersamina to lead Tagaytay to a 2.5-1.5 win over Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA)-Quezon City B. Tagaytay, which was already assured of the title after the eighth round, finished the nine-round tournament with eight wins and one draw for 17 points out of a possible 18 to pocket the P100,000 top prize. Last year's winner LWUA-Quezon City A, bannered by GM John Paul Gomez and Ted Ian Montoyo, squeezed out a 2.5-1.5 victory over South Cotabato for 14 points to clinch the P70,000 runners-up purse. GM Mark Paragua steered Misamis Oriental to a third-place finish after posting a 2.5-1.5 decision against Makati. Misamis actually ended up tied with Bacolod-Negros, which suffered a 3-1 loss to Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Quezon City, but the former copped third place via tiebreak. The two teams, however, split the combined third and fourth place cash prizes, receiving P40,000 each. DAR-Quezon City finished fifth with 12 points, a full point ahead of two Iloilo-based teams, La Paz and Club 64-Iloilo. The all-female LWUA-C nipped Bulacan-BYCF, 2.5-1.5, while Cabuyao-Laguna trounced Accenture Club-A, 3-1, to join LWUA-B in eighth to 10th places with 10 points. So and Allan Cantonjos bagged the individual gold medals in boards one and two, respectively. Peter I. Kimpo-Aklan's Kevin Mirano and Menard De Ocampo of Accenture-A captured the boards three and four gold medals. - JVP, GMA News