By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
SURVIVORS of the double-elimination round tourney will enter the playoff knockout stage of the Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) tonight, remembering the contrasting fates of Surigao and Camarines teams in their thrilling race for the last disputed eight spots in the Southern division.
While Camarines, after building a comfortable lead for the last slot, lapsed into six successive defeats in the second round, Surigao took a different route, racking up five consecutive wins ― including another 15-6 thrashing of Camarines ― to keep the Mindanao team's hope alive of duplicating its quarterfinals stint in the 2nd Conference.
Surigao chessers were close to making it.
Until a heart-breaking 10-11 defeat at the hands of guest Davao squad in their final round assignment on Saturday, left them bidding goodbye in the PCAP’s season-ending 3rd Conference.
The narrow defeat allowed Camarines to hold on to Southern’s eighth place with the same eight-15 win-loss record with Surigao, but with better tiebreak results via “more number of wins” than the usual “win over the other” that could have greatly benefited the late-surging Surigao Checkmaters.
“It’s like how to lose a winning game. Six-straight jinx against five-zero lucky streak that suddenly hit a bumpy curve for Surigao. It’s a lesson for every one of us to get a new one (computer mouse) when playing in crucial matches because it already happened not just once,” remarked National Master Levi Mercado, whose Palawan team also failed to qualify.
With the momentum on their side, Surigao is favored to get past Davao and overthrow Camarines in the playoff run. But something strange happened.
Winning in the rapid play on board two after besting Arnel Aton in their first blitz contest, Surigao’s heart and soul Lennon Hart Salgados, unfortunately, committed a mouse slip.
Thus, it led to accidentally wrongly pushing one of his Kingside passed pawns that allowed Aton to escape with a draw. It could have been 11-10 in favor of Surigao against Camarines in the overall standing, if not of the unfortunate stroke of fate.
“I was really surprised at the sight of my computer mouse pushing g5 instead of the winning h5 move which was actually on my mind. It was really not us to advance because the mouse slip interfered,” shared Lennon Hart of his forgettable misnomer in online chess drama.
“It’s really regrettable, but yes luck was not on our side. We have a couple of players whose games are either winning or drawish but they faltered all the same,” acknowledged Surigao team owner, Arena Grandmaster Rey Urbiztondo.
The top-eight South teams vying in the playoff knockout round tonight are the top-ranked Philippine Paralympic Team, the second-seed Iloilo, Singapore, Penang, Negros, Lapu-lapu, Toledo, and Camarines.
Advancing in the North are the powerhouse San Juan and Pasig, Laguna and Caloocan, Manila, Davao, Isabela, and Rizal.
