EDSEL Montoya emerged winner in the recently concluded Cebu Deep Blue Christmas Chess Open 2012 at the Deep Blue D’ Woodpusher’s Club at the SM City Cebu.
Montoya breezed through the top 32 all the way to the top 16 and semifinal round then defeated a highly rated wood pusher en route to the crown.
He downed Diego Claro and Richard Natividad in the first and second rounds and edged Yves Fiel in the top eight to book a seat in the final four against another underdog Alan Salientes. Salientes bowed to Montoya, 0-2, in the final four despite his impressive victories in the previous rounds against National Master Leonardo Alidani, Bonn Tiboy and Michael Pagaran.
Montoya faced FIDE master Anthony Makinano in the final round and finished off with a 2-0 victory to walk away with the P15,000 top purse. He also got a P25,000 worth wrist watch as the top prize of the tournament./CORRESPONDENT DALE G. ROSAL