Saturday, May 9, 2009

HENRY LOPEZ - " BEATING THE ODDS " PART I


( Henry Lopez receiving the trophy and cash prize for the Davao del Norte team that tied for 4th/5th place at the Handurawan Nat'l Chess Team Championships held at Dapitan City,Zamboanga. Also in photo are teammates NM Cedric Magno, James Bulicatin, Jay Bulicatin Lyndon Sombilon and Team Manager Darwin Bermudez ) ,


Henry Roger Iligan Lopez was born on November 27, 1980 at A.O. Floreindo, Panabo City. Henry is a polio victim since childhood but this supposed handicap did not deter him to pursue his dreams in life, which includes chess. He learn to play chess at the age of 11 and since then he had accumulated a number of chess achievements, some of them are as follows:

Gold Medalist - SMRAA Meet 1999, Isulan, Sultan Kudarat
Gold Medalist in Board 1, PRISAA Meet 2000-2004
Champion, Araw ng Davao, 2000
Gold Medalist Board 1, 3rd Mindanao Friendship Games,2002 , Cagayan de Oro City
1ST PICHAY CUP, 2005- GOLD
ARAW NG DABAW,2002- GOLD
ARAW NG DABAW,2004-GOLD
ARAW NG DABAW,2006-GOLD
KABASAN CHESSFEST,2007 -GOLD
2005 ASEAN PARAGAMES(PHIL.) - 4 GOLDS, 2 SILVERS
2OO8 ASEAN PARAGAMES(THAILAND)- 1 GOLD,1 SILVER

Henry cosider his experiences in playing for the Phil. national team in the two ASEAN Paragames as among his greatest achievements so far as well as beating Grand Master (GM) Mark Paragua in the 2008 Pichay Sr. Memorial Chess Tournament. At present, he is busy pursuing his law course at the University of Mindanao (UM) of which he is an incoming senior, as he also aspire to be a lawyer someday.

We feature below his game of ala-Petrosian style versus the raging bull of Philippine chess. The attacking player who is known in chess circle as "chinese killer", NM Alex Milagrosa. Alex got this name after beating in succession the visiting chinese national players in the Far East Bank International Open in the 1990's. Incidentally, almost of the games were Sicilian Defense, a defense which Alex is familiar because of his obsession to his idol, Bobby Fischer.

( This game was originally posted at Mindanao Chess website http.//www.freewebs.com/mindanaochess/index.htm as annotated by Rey C. Urbiztondo, NCFP Region X Coordinator ).


White: Henry Lopez
Black: NM Alex Milagrosa
Round 6, September 26, 2004
Iligan City Chess Open

Moderm Defense transposed to Kings Indian Defense

1.d4 g6 2.Nf3 Bg7
3.c4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6
5.e4 O-O 6.Be2 Bg4
7.Be3 Nc6 8.d5 Bf3
9.Bf3 Ne5 10.Be2 c6
11.O-O a6

Main line is 11.... Re8 12 Rc1 e6 13. dc Nc6 14. Qb3 Qe7 15. Rfd1 Red8 16 Rd2 Rd7 17. Rcd1 Rad8 18 Qa3 += as in Dorfman-Balashov, USSR Championship 1984

12.f4 Ned7 13.Rc1 cd5
14.ed5 Qa5 15.Qd2 Rfc8
16.Rfd1 Nc5 17.b3 b5?!

This is the dubious move. Better is to prepare for the pawn move by 17.... Rab8, then b5.

18.cb5 ab5 19.Bxb5 Ng4
20.Bc6 Bxc3 21.Qxc3 Qxc3
22.Rxc3 Ne4 23.Rcd3 Ra2
24.b4! Rb2 25.Bd4! Ra2
26.h3 Ngf2 27.Bf2 Nf2
28.R3d2 Nd1 29.Ra2 Rb8
30 Ra8 Ra8 31.Bxa8 Nb2
32.Bc6 e6 33.Kf1 Kf8
34.de6 fe6 35.Bb5 Nd1
36 Bc6 Resigns..
1 - O

( To be continued... Part II will feature Henry's games against IM Salor Sitanggang of Indonesia, GM John Paul Gomez and GM Mark Paragua.)

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