Rogelio Barcenilla

Barcenilla played in five Chess Olympiads.

At the 28th Chess Olympiad (1988) in Thessaloniki, Greece, he was part of the history-making Philippine Team that placed 7th, the team's best-ever showing in the biennial tournament, where as an untitled player but with an ELO of 2320 he played the 2nd Reserve Board and contributed 2½/4 games (+2 =1 -1) for a winning rate of 62.5% and a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2569. The team recorded 7 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses on the way to the 7th-place finish.[4]

At the 30th Chess Olympiad (1992) in Manila, Philippines, he played Board 3 as an IM (2465 ELO) and scored 4.0/9 (+3 =2 -4) for a 44.4% winning rate and a low TPR of 2368 placing 64th among all Board 3 players. The team placed 31st in this edition.

At the 32nd Chess Olympiad (1996) in Yerevan, Armenia, he again manned Board 3 for Team Philippines with an ELO of 2450. He recorded a team-best 8.0/12 posting 6 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses with a 66.7% winning rate and a high 2575 TPR and placing 6th among all Board 3 participants. He led the team to a 26th-place finish.[5]

At the 42nd Chess Olympiad (2016) held in Baku, Azerbaijan, Barcenilla played Board 4 where he recorded 5.5/10 posting 5 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses for a winning rate of 55.0% with a TPR of 2441 as against his 2455 ELO rating where he placed 40th among Board 4 contestants. The team ended up in 58th place among 170 teams.[6]

At the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad held from July 25 to August 30, 2020, Team Philippines was included in Division 2 and placed 5th with 10 match points behind Bulgaria (18), Germany (15), Indonesia (12) and Australia (11), thereby failing to qualify in the Top Division where only the top three qualified.[7] Barcenilla (2463) played Board 2 behind GM Mark Paragua where he scored 1 point in 3 games (+1 =0 -2).[8] He won against Indonesian IM Yoseph Theolifus Taher in Round 2 but lost against German GM Daniel Fridman in Round 3 and versus GM Bart Michiels of Belgium in Round 5.[9][8]

Barcenilla (2440) partipated in the Zonal 11 of the FIDE World Chess Championship cycle 1990-1993 held in Shah Alam. Selangor, Malaysia where he tied for 9th-13th places alongside fellow Filipino GM Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Asia's first GM Eugene Torre and GM Utut Adianto and IM Edhi Handoko both of Indonesia where he eventually ended up in 12th place behind Antonio (9th), Handoko (10th), Torre (11th) and ahead of Adianto (13th) with a score of 6.0/11 (+5 =2 -4) and a TPR of 2426. Unfortunately it was not enough to qualify for the Interzonals where only the top 2 qualified.

Barcenilla twice won the Asian Junior Chess Championship, back-to-back in 1989 held at Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and in 1990 at Kerala, India.[10]

He also participated in two esitions of the World Junior Chess Championship:

• At the 1987 Baguio World Junior Chess Championship, Barcenilla, then untitled, finished in 23rd place (tie for 23rd-32nd) with 6.5/13 (+5 =3 -5) ending up tied with fellow Filipino Junior player FM Vince Alaan among others, and having the best tiebreak among 10 tied players. He had a TPR of 2384.[11]
• At the 1991 Mamaia World Junior Chess Championship he performed quite well tying for 3rd-6th places ultimately copping 6th place after tiebreaks and missing out on the bronze medal. He scored 8.5/13 (+7 =3 -3) with a TPR of 2521 (2450 ELO rating).[12]

He ended his stint in the World Junior Chess Championship with a score of 15 points in 26 games on the strength of 12 wins, 6 draws and 8 losses for a 57.7% winning rate.[13]

Barcenilla (2450) also participated in the 10th World Youth U-26 Team Chess Championship (1995) held in Parnaiba, Brazil where he manned Board 2 for Team Philippines behind Board 1 player then IM Nelson Mariano II and ended up as the team's second-best scorer with 5.0/7 (+4 =2 -1) for a winning rate of 71.4% with a TPR of 2409.[14] The team won the silver medal with 19.5 points behind Team Georgia (22).[15]

Barcenilla also played for Team Philippines in three Asian Team Chess Championships

Event	Board	ELO	Record	Winning %	Individual result	Rank	TPR	Team result
Penang Asian Team Chess Championship (9th) 1991	3rd	2450	+5 =4 -0	77.8%	7.0/9«»	Silver	2516	Silver [16]
Kuala Lumpur Asian Team Chess Championship (10th) 1993	3rd	2465	+3 =2 -1	66.7%	4.0/6	Silver	2458	Bronze [17]
Singapore Asian Team Chess Championship (11th) 1995+	3rd	2455	+7 =1 -1	83.3%	7.5/9•«»	Silver	2538	Gold [18]

Barcenilla finished the Asian Team Chess Championship with six medals: three silver medals in individual play and one gold, one silver and one bronze in team competitions posting 18½ points in 24 games with 15 wins, 7 draws and 2 losses for a high 77.1% winning rate.[19]

«»Best performer in terms of points and winning rate

Team Philippines ended the eliminations of the 2020 Asian Nations Chess Cup Open Division in 2nd place just behind Iran registering 7 wins and 2 losses with Barcenilla, who manned Board 2, contributing 6.0/8 winning 5 games with 2 draws and 1 loss for a TPR of 2463 (ELO 2463) copping the bronze medal in the process.[20]

Barcenilla participated in the 2nd Millionaire Chess Open held from October 8–12, 2015 won by Super GM Wesley So of the US, formerly of the Philippines, with a score of 7.0/9 games. Barcenilla registered 4 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses for a total of 4.5/9 games. Among his victims was GM Andrey Stukopin (2587) of the US in the 6th round only to fall to Super GM Varuzhan Akobian (2635) in the 7th round. He was ranked 51st (2455 ELO) but placed 75th among 147 participants with a TPR of 2467.[21]

Barcenilla is a two-time champion of the Philippine Chess Championship winning it in 1996 and 2019. He won the 2019 edition now known as the Battle of the Grandmasters by scoring 7.0/11 registering 4 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss, 1 point clear of joint second-placers IM Paulo Bersamina and GM John Paul Gomez.[22]

Barcenilla tied for 2nd-9th places in the 116th Annual U.S. Open Chess Championship with 7.5/9 ultimately finishing in 6th place in the tournament won by GM Alexander Shabalov. He posted 7 wins, 1 draw and a lone loss suffered in the 8th round that effectively ended his title aspirations.[23]

Barcenilla defended his title at the Annual Phoenix Open Chess sponsored by the Unity Chess Club by winning the 2019 edition for the 7th straight year. He scored a perfect 6.0/6 in the two-day tournament held at Mesa, Arizona, USA. He defeated Atharva Bist, Gregory Bryson, Jonathan Martinez, Chang Xu, Dagadu Gaikwad and Aram Varahram, in succession.[24][25]

In March 2020, Barcenilla topped the first leg of the 10-leg 1st Philippine National Bullet Online Chess Championship finishing with 15 points on 14 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses in the 18-round competition supported by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) Chairman/President Prospero Pichay.[26] His two losses came from IM Daniel Quizon, Philippines' Blitz king and UST standout Samson Lim, Jr. who ended up with 14 and 13.5 points, good for 2nd and 3rd place.[27]

In the 4th leg of the Philippine National Bullet Online Chess Championship, Barcenilla ended up 2nd with 82 points, just a point behind leg-winner IM Quizon who scored a total of 83 points.[28]

Barcenilla eventually placed 6th in the Grand Finals of the 1st Philippine National Bullet Online Chess Championship after scoring 17.5 points out of a perfect 30 which was topped by GM Paragua with a score of 25.5 points, 4.5 points ahead of second-placed IM Paulo Bersamina. Third place went to teen Michael Concio (20 points), IM Quizon (4th, 18.5) FM Sander Severino (5th, 18.5), Barcenilla, IM Jan Emmanuel Garcia (7th, 16), IM Joel Pimentel (8th, 15.5), GM Antonio (9th, 15.5) and Samson Lim, Jr. (10th, 13). Barcenilla along with the other Top 10 finishers each won P5,000.00.[29]

Barcenilla also ended up as runner-up in the 2020 Baby Uno Chess Challenge dubbed as the Grandmaster and Attorney Rosendo Carreon Balinas, Jr. Chess Championship last September 2020 behind fellow GM Paragua. He scored 17 points on 15 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses to win the P5,000.00 runner-up prize plus a PH Agila T-shirt.[30]