Clean sweep: FEU dominates UAAP chess competitions

Making a clean sweep of the competitions, Far Eastern University romped off with the men’s and women’s crowns of the 72nd UAAP chess tournament Sunday at the Tan Yan Kee Student Center inside the University of Santo Tomas campus.

The Tamaraws team headed by MVP Sheider Nebato completed its domination of the men’s wars with a 3.5-0.5 disposal of the UST Tigers in the last day of action for a 14-round winning aggregate of 42 points. It was the fourth straight men’s chess crown and 11th overall for the FEU woodpushers, who finished a good 6.5 points ahead of their closest pursuer, University of the East (35.5) and 7.5 adrift the third-placing Tigers (34.5) The Warriors dislodged the UST aces from second place after capping their campaign with a 3-1 drubbing of University of the Philippines. Completing the sweep for the Morayta-based crew were 2006 Doha Asian Games veteran WNM Jedara Docena and the FEU Lady Tamaraws. The Lady Tams prevailed over the UST Tigresses in the final round, 3-1, to nail their first-ever women’s chess crown with their 34.5-point tally. Taking runner-up honors were Ateneo de Manila (31.5), which posted it best-ever finish at second, and La Salle (29.5), which settled for third after ruling the field last season. "Our hard work has paid off," GM Jayson Gonzales, FEU’s coach said. Ateneo’s Chardine Camacho grabbed a share of the spotlight in the women’s division as she took home the Rookie-MVP honors. FEU's double championship - the first in the chess competitions since La Salle pulled the feat in the 2002-03 season - came a couple of days after a similar sweep was accomplished in the volleyball wars, this time by UST. - GMANews.TV