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Lower boards deliver as Valenzuela stuns Tagaytay, Quezon City


MANILA, Philippines – Little known Vic Neil Villanueva and Silverio Abasolo delivered in the lower boards as Valenzuela City made its mark in the 2009 National Inter-Cities and Municipalities chess team championship in Tarlac City. While GM Mark Paragua kept his composure against the solid games of GMs Darwin Laylo and Rogelio Antonio, Jr. on board one, Villanueva and Abasolo made their move to lift Valenzuela past top seed Tagaytay City, 3.5-.5, in the fifth round and former solo leader Quezon City, 3-1, in the sixth. Villanueva downed Allan Macala (Tagaytay) and Gary Legaspi (Quezon City) one after the other while Abasolo defeated Rhoel Abelgas (Tagaytay) and Ilann Perez (Quezon City) to help Valenzuela post back-to-back wins. Valenzuela actually almost swept Tagaytay as Ivan Gil Biag also won over Raymond Salcedo. It was Laylo's draw with Paragua which somehow stop Valenzuela's onslaught. Against Quezon City, Paragua halved the point with Antonio and Biag split the point with Jerry Areque to post Valenzuela's win. “We're very happy with the team's performance so far. But we have to continue to play better in the remaining rounds," said Valenzuela team captain Richard de la Cruz on Tuesday. With those victories, Valenzuela is now tied for the leadership with Quezon City, Philippine National Police-Quezon City and Local Water Utilities Administration-QC-B with identical 10 match points. Quezon City defeated LWUA-QC-F, 2.5-1.5, in the fifth round. PNP-QC downed LWUA-QC-C, 3-1, in the fifth round and Muntinlupa, 2.5-1.5 in the next round. LWUA-QC-B defeated LWUA-QC-A, 2.5-1.5 , in the fifth round and LWUA-QC-F, 2.5-1.5 in the sixth round. – GMANews.TV