Good company

By FRANK 'BOY' PESTAÑO
CHESSMOSO

READING the life of Dr. Jose Rizal years ago, what I can’t forget was that our national hero was a chess player. He was so good he was invited to become a member of the Heidelberg Chessplayers Club while he was in Germany.

If you play chess you are indeed in good company. Don’t believe all those talks that chess players are misfits or dropouts and the like of what Sherlock Holmes says, “He is a chess player, Watson. A man of devious mind.” Chess, especially when taught early to the child, helps develop qualities that make him or her a good leader and an asset to society.

Consider this: Presidents who play chess were Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Corazon Aquino, Ferdinand Marcos, Anwar Sadat, Yasser Arafat, and more. Leaders all are Arthur Balfour, Menachim Begin, Winston Churchill and Benjamin Disraeli.

Nobel-prize winners who were avid chess players were Albert Einstein, John Cornforth, Gerard Debrew, William Golding, Sinclair Lewis, Boris Pasternak, Bertrand Russel, John Steinbeck and William Yeats.

You think that holiness and chess don’t mix? Think again. Pope John Paul II is a good player. So were Popes Paul I, Leo X, Leo XIII, and great Popes Innocent III and Gregory the Great. The Patron saint of chess players in Spain is St. Theresa of Avila, a chess player.

There must be something about chess that makes one a great musician. Chess players all were Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Strauss.

This list is practically endless. Although, I don’t have the hard data to back this up, I believe that chess is the most played game in the world today even more so than basketball, golf or soccer. It is now part of the school curriculum in more than 40 countries in Europe, Asia and America.

$10,000 WINNER. The US of A certainly is the land of milk and honey. Josito Dondon, a Cebuano, won the other week $10,000 in the World Chess Open in Philadelphia. That’s P550,000! You can’t win this kind of money here and Dondon wasn’t even in the premiere section. He played in the under 2000 category and won seven games and drew two for first place.

Another item which Dondon mentioned in his e-mail is the chess explosion in the USA. With Chess in Schools Program firmly in place, over 30 million school children now play chess and it has created a huge demand for instructors and tutors.

Cebuano IM Enrico Sevillano is raking it in teaching chess at $60 per hour in Las Vegas. Even Victor Legaspina, a former Cepca president, is enjoying himself playing in tournaments which are sprouting everywhere.

ASIAN GAMES. When I read in the Hindu Times that chess will be included in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar in 2006, my initial reaction was wow! Now is our chance to win some medals. Upon closer inspection, however, we would have minimal chances. China, India, Uzbekistan and the other Asian republics of the former USSR, even Vietnam, have much better players and our chance of winning is at most bronze in the team category.

CEPCA VS. LAPU-LAPU. For the second time, the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association will test the mettle of the Lapu-Lapu Chess Club in a 20-board encounter on Aug. 1 at the Cebu Youth Chess Center. Spearheading Cepca is former president Ben Di-maano backed up by William Retanal, Jojo Muralla, Dante Arguelles, Jun Catayas and Nikki Estenor. Lapu-Lapu will be led by Ariel Potot and mainstays Ramsy Pedroza, Tony Cabibil, Alwin Daculan, Arnel Abellana and Rene Romero.

TRIVIA: What country has the highest per capita chess population in the world?

If you know the answer go to Tun-anan Study and Chess Center at 28 Visitacion St. and claim your prize, a tournament-size chess set from Nicnic Climaco of Cepca. E-mailed answers will be entertained but priority will be given to those who answer in person.

The winner of the last week’s trivia was Stephen Tao, who e-mailed the correct answer from Japan-British Chess Magazine.