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ORGANIZERS of the 8th Asean + Age Group Chess
Championships held at the Jomtien Thani Hotel in Pattaya, Thailand
awarded a late gold to the 27-man Philippine chess squad Friday at
the close of the nine-day, Swiss System tournament.
The Filipinos’ eighth gold was
awarded to Marie Antoinette San Diego in the girls under-8 division
of the blitz event, after organizers reversed the decision of the
Vietnamese arbiter who gave a full point to a Vietnamese player in
the first round of the finals after the two hurdled their semis
opponent to arrange the championship clash.
San Diego and Vietnam’s Nguyen
Thanh Thuy Tien actually both had no time left on their clocks, but
Nguyen immediately called the attention of the Vietnamese arbiter.
The arbiter, in turn, decided in
favor of his compatriot and awarded her the full point in violation
of a Fide rule that says that the position should result in a draw.
The arbirter’s decision angered
Filipino officials, led by National Chess Federation of the
Philippines head of delegation Willie Abalos, who immediately asked
for an investigation of the incident.
Abalos, who is also a member of
the tournament’s appeals committee, together with team coach GM
Joey Antonio, brought the matter to the attention of Ostric Mooiem,
the tournament director, and other chess officials present.
Abalos argued that in the first
place, organizers should have assigned an arbiter from a neutral
country and not somebody who is a compatriot of one of the players.
National Chess Federation of the
Philippines president Rep. Butch Pichay Toti Abundo, who arrived on
June 21, also backed Abalos’ appeal and made the necessary
representation with Asean Chess Confederation president Ignatius
Leung.
In all, the Filipinos won 8 golds,
10 silvers and 23 bronzes to place third overall behind Singapore
(12-23-17) and the 88-strong delegation Vietnam, which brought home
75 golds, 29 silvers and 39 golds.
The gold medalists were led by
boys’ under-14 champion Haridas Pascua, who won a gold in the
standard and blitz events, Samantha Glo Revita in the girls’
under-8 (standard) Vince Angelo Medina (boys’ under-12) and San
Diego in blitz; the team gold in the blitz’ under-composed of
Medina, Eugene Samonte and Dominique Lagula; and Paulo James
Florendo (Under-18) and Kimberly Cunanan (girls U-16) in the rapid
event.
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