2nd seed IM Rolando Nolte lived up to his high billing by ruling the fifth Prospero Pichay Sr. Memorial chess tournament at the Surigao del Sur Polytechnic College here Saturday.

Nolte, the highest-rated player here with an ELO  of  2522,  dumped Nm Hamed Nouri in the eighth round and drew with GM Mark Paragua in th en inth and final round to cap his campaign in this four-day tournament  organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP).

Nolte actually finished in a four-way tie for first place with GM Rogelio Antonio Jr. NM Reggie Olay and  Paragua with similar scores of seven points  out of a possible nine.

But the Quezon City-based campaigner clicnyhed the title by virtue of higher tiebreak score over Antonio, Olay and Paragua.

The four players , however, split the combined cash prizes for the top four places and pocketed P50,000 reach.

Antonio halved the point with Olay  in the eight round and then trounced NM Mirabeau Maga in the ninth round to  join the winners’ circle.

Olay followed up his draw with Antonio  by downing untitled  Jay Bulicatin, while Paragua crushed last  year’s winner  IM Barlo Nadera in the eighth round before drawing with Nolte in the final round.

 Nouri and Nadera dropped into another four-ay tie for fifth to eighth places with 6.5 points.  They each received P9,250.

 With Nouri and Nadera were NM Alexander Lupian, who beat Vincent Umayan and NM Rusutm Tolenrino; and Jimmy Dano, who bested   Ibaryu Adante and Abdullah Unding.

Tied for ninth to 13 th places were Henry Lopez, Ben Polao, Bulicatin, Mga and Santiago Lumancas. They earned P3,800.

The tournament  was held for the fifth straight year in honor of the late father of NCFP president Prospero “Butch” Pichay.