My Chess Life (Part 1 1984-2001)

Where do I start?
How do I chronicle 18 years of chess life in the 20th century? My own life story is quite normal, in fact it's borderline uneventful, but my chess life is full of ups and downs. It's chock-full of intense battles and titanic struggles on a sixty four squared chess board. I learned chess at the age of 15, pretty late by most standards. And as you may have guessed, I became quite passionate about the game. I played A LOT of chess during my free time (in those days I literally ate, breath and dreamt chess), and so I improved quickly. A month later I was almost unbeatable at school (except for one teacher) who beat me 4-1.

My First Competition (School Intrams)

Having beaten all of my chess-playing schoolmates and majority of my chess-playing teachers during offhand games, I was heavily favored to win. The expectations from my friends and classmates was sky-high! I myself was only aiming for first place. After winning 90% of my games, tragedy struck - I lost the game that mattered most -- the championship game. It was the closest thing to death. While my world crashed, jubilation erupted on the other end of the floor! In a spontaneous spur-of-the-moment thing, the classmates of my opponent carried him on their shoulders on their way out of the venue. Even they could not believe what had just happened. Even my opponent could not believe that he won (I've beaten him sufficiently enough in informal games prior to this). I swore to myself that I will avenge my defeat one way or the other. I even told him point blank that I will beat him next year. Later on, we played many times and I mercilessly crushed him. A year later we met again during our school intramurals. The hype was on and the grudge match was eagerly awaited by everyone, but this time my opponent was so psyched out that he merely offered a token resistance. It was payback time. Gold at last!

Chess in the late 1980s

My first real tournament was the 1989 Negros Juniors Chess Championship. My modest aim that time was a place in the Top 5. Back then the level of play in the Juniors is not as strong as it is now. I did not fancy my chances because I reckon that there are a number of 'strong' players present. After a tough seven rounder, I was pleasantly surprised when I tied for first with two others after scoring 5.5/7, and was fortunate enough to be declared champion after the computation of the tiebreak. So I represented the province of Negros Occidental along with two of my compatriots to the 1989 National Juniors Chess Championship. I had a relatively good results in the early goings and was undefeated in the first eight rounds (although some of these games were drawn) but then I lost in the 9th and 11th rounds, along the way I manage to scalp the then promising (and future master) Arlan Cabe in the 10th. I ended up somewhere in the Top 20

Chess in the 1990s

Starting in the 1990s, the now defunct Far East Bank and Trust Co. started it's series of Regional Elimination tournaments, a qualifying event for it's annual FEBTC Philippine International Open. It was a tournament that most chessplayers eagerly awaited. I played every year since it's inception but only manage to reach the Top 10 once in 1996.So I qualified and was all set to compete in the FEBTC International Open in Manila but at the last moment something came up... In '97 I was so close to qualifying again, I only needed to win the last round to make it. I overpressed in an equal position and the opposite happened.

Disillusionment With Chess

In 1998, the Asian Financial Crisis happened, some banks took a direct hit. FEBTC was one of them. Commercial sponsorship dried up. So by extension, chess was also hit hard. At this point I would like to digress a bit because I wanted to revisit the year 1993-94, it was a turning point of some sort. 1993 was the year I spent a lot of time overhauling my opening repertoire from mostly 1.c4 and 1.d4 to only 1.e4 (a monumental shift!). So I expected to do well the following year, but my result in '94 was sub-par. It came to a point where I seriously thought of giving-up and quitting chess altogether. I was disillusioned with the game. My progress had stalled and there was a dearth of tournament chess (only two events was held in the previous year), the future was bleak so to speak. Fortunately or (un)fortunately a very important person in my life intervened and talked me out of it, so my plan of quitting chess altogether was shelved indefinitely.

Caissa, the Goddess of Chess

So I stuck with Caissa (for better or for worse, til death do us part). Then out of the blue, 1994 Mixed Masters Circuit was held in Bacolod. Manila's finest woodpushers came to Negros to compete. I did not set a goal for myself, I only wanted to play. The absence of internal expectations (and self-imposed pressure) helped me play better. I was loose, I scored 5.5pts out of 9 rounds. Missing the master title by a single point. I was surprised, to say the least. The hard work that I put up the previous year is at last beginning to manifest. The year 1995 was my breakout year. I defeated two National Masters (Manny Senador and Eric Gloria. Eric was a silver medalist in the 1992 Chess Olympiad) in a team event. This feat inspired the affable and battle-scarred veteran, Hernan Antonio to exclaim: "A Star is Born!"

The year 1996-97 was overly abundant in terms of tournaments, it more than made up for the draught that we experienced in previous years. This time my play have improved further and my results had began to stabilize. I was consistently in the Top 10 but I have not reached the dizzying heights of Mt. Olympus yet. This rarified airspace is reserved only for the truly gifted. Historically, Negros and Iloilo was the birthplace of two of our legendary grandmasters: namely GMs Rosendo Balinas and Eugenio Torre. So the pedigree was already there, established in the early 1970s. And Negros in particular are the breeding ground for skilled chess players. Talented players here are a dime a dozen, some are under-rated because they lacked proper exposure. After two equally good years (quantity-wise), the following year ('98) was a major let down in terms of the number of events. The Asian Financial Crises bit hard. The only bright spot for me was when I won the 1998 Negrense Professional Chessfest. Jumping ahead a little bit I also won the 2002, 2004 and 2008 edition. I also came close to winning the 2005 edition, needing only a draw in the last round to wrap-up the title, I pushed too hard for the win and it backfired.

The Slump

At the closing end of the 90s, my play began to go South. I guess it was inevitable. Every sportsman have their best and worst years. Every athlete suffers from a temporary slump in form. There's no point in romanticising the last two years. It was awful. Let's leave it at that.

The New Millennium

The year 2000 was pretty bad, I think there was only one tournament and my result was below expectations. I recall that I was winning in the first round, then I manage to fumble a bit and made my task more difficult and then I began to feel nervous... in the insuing time scramble, I made one hasty move after another and ended up in a worse position, luckily I managed to draw the game. I clearly remember this episode, because it was a nerve-wracking encounter against a player I was expected to win without difficulty. And yet, I missed to win a won game. I began to question myself. I thought I was used to it (the tension), jaded in fact. But whatever it was I didn't get a satisfactory answer from myself. The year 2001 was the turning point. It was the year that I made my dream a reality. After 18 long years of playing chess I finally got my master title!

The Creation of NCFP

There was a lot of drama in the national level in the previous year when the old governing body of chess in the country, the Philippine Chess Federation (PCF) was seriously challenged by a new body which was led by our country's pre-eminent grandmasters and the only Filipino to ever sit as president of Federacion Internationale Des Eches (FIDE), Florencio Campomanes. They asserted that the PCF was incompetent and negligent of it's duties towards the chess players. And after one year of legal and print battle they were successful in wrenching the control away from the PCF. The new governing body was also endorsed by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), the duly recognized body that oversee and provides the necessary budget allocation to all the sports association in the country.

So the first ever 2001 Philippine Open organized by the new chess body was awash with huge cash prizes. The Champion in the semi-finals alone got a whopping 150,000 php! The Top 10 from the National Open (Semi-Finals) will qualify to the National Championship (Finals). In the Open, only unrated, rated, masters and international masters are allowed to compete. All Filipino GM’s was directly seeded in the Finals. My participation in this event came after spending one sleepless night worrying if I can raise enough funds for my plane fare and living expenses for the duration of the tournament. After a tense night spent verifying and negotiating on the phone, I was finally given the GO signal to go to Manila! My Aunt even lent me her condo unit situated in the CBD of Makati, for me to stay while I'm in Manila. I'm forever grateful to her for helping me realize a part of my dream...

And so I packed my bags and went to Manila by myself, alone! I had mixed feelings on the way to the airport, I was definitely excited but dreadful just the same. What if the plane crashed? I shivered. It's not as if I hadn't ridden a plane before, it's just that, this was the first time I travelled alone. With difficulty, I was able to drive away such a fatalistic thought out of my head. My dad was with me when I traveled to the airport. And when the boarding time was announced, I turned to look at my dad for the last time... he looked sad, worried, pained even. I was an only son, so it's natural for a parent to feel these things. But I knew deep inside that I had to do this for myself, otherwise I would torture myself for years to come with "what if's."

Philippine Open (The Big League)

The 2001 Philippine Open (semi-finals) was one of the most interesting chess events of the early 21'st Century, not only because of the excellent start and sensational collapse of my compatriot NM Rodrigo Atutubo (who scored 7/7 only to falter in the last four rounds), it is also the very first high caliber tournament sanctioned by the newly formed National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP). The media coverage of the tournament was huge. I remember that almost all the sports journalist/writer was there to cover the event. And not only that, ABS-CBN also sent it's own representative to cover the event. The tournament was held at the 2nd floor of Greenhills Shopping Mall. The total prize fund of the tournament was huge, in the semi-final alone the total prize fund was close to P500,000.

I started the tournament badly, lost the first game, won the second and again lost the third. But in the next four rounds I caught a favorable wind, winning four straight games (starting from 4th-7th rounds). The result catapulted me back to contention. Then in the eight round I faced a future GM in Oliver Barbosa (jumping ahead, Barbie won the semi-finals of the 2004 National Open in which Wesley So appeared for the first time). It was a tense encounter, in a sharp non-standard position I held the slightest of advantage for quite a long time, but at the critical juncture I miscalculated and lost. I rebounded with three straight wins (rounds 9th to 11th), along the way I beat another future grandmaster. I ended the tournament with 8pts and a tie for 16th to 30th place with IM (now GM) Paragua, IM Roca and NMs (now GM) Sadorra, Sanchez, (now GM) Gomez, Pacis, Sinangote etc. Nearly 200 players took part in this historic event.

Dream Come True

In the last two months of the same year, there were two events (one minor and one major), I finished the minor event tied for first -- I actually regarded it as a warm-up event -- and took my result as a good omen for things to come. Then in December there came the Masters Chess Classic which was held in a beachfront resort in Manapla, Negros Occidental. Some of our country's leading players including two grandmasters took part. I started the tournament pretty well, I scored three points in the first four rounds, two wins and two draws. In the middle round I suffered back to back losses… at this point some players would've probably lost heart after such a set-back. To be honest I thought I was finished. But since there were still three rounds left to play, I took it slowly, one game at a time. I won my next game quite easily, then in the 8th round I had a small advantage but I encountered stiff resistance from my opponent. I tried to breach his defenses but it won't budge, after what seemed like an eternity of maneuvering with no win in sight, I decided that it was time to gamble (he was short on time). So I rolled the dice, sacrificing two pieces (one after another), breaking up his pawn chain in order to create a rolling passed pawns for myself. Shocked by the turn of events, my opponent forgot to press down his clock for several moves and he lost by time forfeit. Fortune favors the bold!

Now there is only one game left to be played. In my twenty plus years of playing chess, this is without a doubt the most intensely difficult and emotionally charged game that I've ever been involved with. Before the game, a friend of mine (who had access to the organizers), informed me, that, should I win this last round game (against NM Ernesto Absin) I would become a National Master. So you can just imagine what I was feeling back then, the added pressure of knowing that this is going to be, in effect, one of the most important game of my life...

I had to endure a few tense moments before the first pawn was pushed. But since it is a "must win" game, I steeled myself and went at it with everything I got!

1.d4!

It was quite dramatic because I felt during the game that I let the win slip by, not once but twice!

In the middle-game, there was a combination that could have given me an outright win. I saw it, but for some reason or another I decided not to execute it, perhaps the pressure got to me. In the endgame, as can be seen in this picture (I had a Q + 4p  vs  Q + N + 1p), just when I thought I could easily capture his errant knight and win the game, I saw that NM Absin had a perpetual check. The anguish that I felt inside bubbled up on the surface and my eyes began to well-up...

I struggled to control it.

Doubts began to arise on it's own accord, and it was precisely at that moment when I asked myself, can I even win this game? It's sooo fkg hard. Luckily, after a long think... I found something that looked like a winning try, and the rest is history.

At last, one of my dreams came true! But I also had to take my hat's 🎩 off to Ernesto, who fought until the last drop of his blood in chess. Among the many players who were intently following my last round game are Francis Glen Panes, NM Retanal, IM Rolando Nolte and GM Eugene Torre (a towering figure in Asian chess). Later that night, Gatus informed me, that according to Eugene, I missed a beautiful combination in the middle game☺

PS. At that time, Chess Asia is not only a nation-wide circulated chess magazine, it is also exported in most parts of Asia.