By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Iloilo Kisela Knights pulled off a come-from-behind victory over the Surigao Fianchetto Checkmates during the Southern Division semifinal clash of the ongoing Professional Chess Association of the Philippines (PCAP) Wesley So Cup second conference last December 2, 2023.
Iloilo needed an Armageddon tiebreaker round to eliminate the resilient Surigao squad and completed a comeback win after giving up the first set.
The Fianchetto Checkmates stunned the Kisela Knights in the opening set after dominating in all the 14 playing boards, 4-17.
After only trailing by a point in the blitz category, Surigao started to widen the gap after winning six out of the seven playing boards in the rapid category.
Just when Surigao thought they could complete the upset, the Kisela Knights had other plans and bounced back in the most perfect time.
This time, it was Iloilo who took control of the match, earning an early 4-3 lead after the blitz category.
Surigao kicked off the rapid category on a high note as they won the first three playing boards to get back in the driver’s seat.
However, Iloilo delivered in the clutch to retake the advantage courtesy of three crucial wins from Cesar Mariano, Fritz Bryan Porras, and John Michael Silvederio.
During the Armageddon round, the Kisela Knights dropped its first match and were in trouble of letting another PCAP division final slip away but the duo of NM Porras and NM Silvederio won back-to-back boards to help Iloilo win the series against Surigao.
The Kisela Knights will take some time off before setting up a highly-anticipated Southern Division finals series with the Toledo Xignex-Trojans next week.
