Naki Warriors advance to playoffs

CEBU CITY – The Lapu-Lapu Naki Warriors took a seat into the playoffs round of the 2021 Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Open Conference after finishing the grueling elimination phase with a 14-9 win-loss slate good for a 6^th place finish behind the top seed the National Paralympics teams in the Southern Division.

Lapu-Lapu also had a 7-3 win-loss record during the first round that enabled them to move to the second round to compete against the top Northern teams and the guest teams that includes a Chinese squad, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippine Paralympic team, a developmental team and teams from Davao and Pampanga.

On its final two schedules, Lapu-Lapu went 4-0 to boost its campaign to take a higher place in the playoffs round.

In the opening match of the Nov. 10 game date, the Naki Warriors defeated Camarines Soaring Eagles 16-5 and capped the night with a 12-9 over the Mindoro Tamaraws. Three nights later, Lapu-Lapu City lost to Penang (Malaysia) 11.5 to 9.5, but recovered two hours later and defeated Bangkok (Thailand) 13-8 to formally end the elimination phase.

The National Paralympic team topped the Southern Division after finishing with 18-5 record, followed by Iloilo Kisela Knights (17-6), SinQGApore (17-6), Negros Kingsmen (15-8), Penang (14-9), Lapu-Lapu City, Toledo City Trojans (11-12) and Camarines (8-15) into the playoff stage.

In the north, Pasig City King Pirates topped with 22-1 card, with San Juan Predators (21-2), Laguna Heroes (19-4), Caloocan Loadmanna Knights (18-5), Manila Indios Bravos (16-7) Davao Chess Wizards (12-11), Isabela Knight Raiders (10-13) and Rizal Batch Towers (9-14) were the playoff qualifiers for the Northern Division.

The knockout playoffs will start on Nov. 17 with top seed Pasig playing Rizal, San Juan against Isabela, Laguna taking on Davao and Caloocan against Manila for the North while the PH Paralympics plays Camarines, Iloilo will take on Toledo, SinQGApore playing Lapu-Lapu and Negros squares off with Penang.

The winners will advance to the conference semifinals and will move closer to the Open Conference title. RCM

Rommel Manlosa

Former Senior Sportswriter of SunStar Cebu. Also a former PSC consultant for media affairs for the Visayas. Boxing and basketball analyst with varied experience in radio broadcasting and motocross events annotating. Also an organizer of various sporting events.

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