After a slow start, Jeth Romy Morado is starting to reintroduce himself as the country’s national junior chess champion.
Morado wielded the Slav Defense like a magic wand in dumping Robin Ignacio in 41 moves and powering Far Eastern University to a 3.5-.5 demolition of National University that kept them comfortably perched at the helm in the men’s division after the eighth round of the UAAP Season 82 Chess Tournament at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion Sunday.
Saddled with a pair of early draws in the first round, the 20-year-old Morado finally hit his stride and has piled up victory after victory to hike his impressive total to seven points out of the possible nine.
And with him rides an inspired FEU squad that has already amassed 25 points, or a whopping 4.5 points ahead of the pack that is headed by University of Santo Tomas, overwhelmed University of the Philippines, 3.5-.5, with 20.5 points.
RK Sevillano and Darry Bernardo provided the other victories for the Tams on boards two and four, respectively, while JM Jacutina halved the point with Jayson Danday on board three to complete the one-sided result.
Overall, FEU is gunning for a league-record 15 men’s title.
And it looks like only the end of the world could stop the rampaging Tams from achieving such feat.
