36th Chess Olympiad

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño

OLYMPIC fever is now at its peak with the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece now at its tail end. It’s also time to look at the next international sporting event, which is the Chess Olympiad On Oct. 14-31 in Calvia, Majorca, Spain. The Majorcan borough of Calvia is located in the Balearic Islands west of the mainland and is famous for its casinos and beaches.

A total of 140 male and 100 female chess teams are expected to participate in this biennial event, the biggest so far in the history of the Olympiad, and the Philippines just might not be part of it.

The National Chess federation of the Philippines (NCFP) is hopelessly divided now and at this late stage cannot form a team. The ideal team should include all our grandmasters namely Eugene Torre, Rogelio Antonio, Bong Villamayor and Nelson Mariano II. Also to be included are IM Mark Paragua and World Championship qualifier IM Ronald Dableo or better still USA-based IM Rogelio “Banjo” Barcenilla.

A look at the Fide website also shows that Philippine players are not in the ratings list. I’ve contacted Casto Abundo, ratings administrator of Fide, and Eugene Torre on this matter but I didn’t receive any reply. A possible reason is we might have not paid our dues to Fide. If ever we cannot or will not participate, it will be a shame and a disaster for the Philippines in the international chess community since we have been participating in all Chess Olympiads since 1956. However, there is still time and I hope that everything turns out all right.

Our best showing was in Thessalonica, Greece in 1988 when we placed seventh among 107 countries. Since then our record has been dismal with 21st place in Novi Sad in 1990, 31st in Manila in 1992, 21st in Moscow in 1994, 26th in Elista, Kalmykia in 1998, 25th in Istanbul in 2000, and 39th in Bled, Slovenia in 2002.

Russia has won all male team events since 1952 in Helsinski with the exception of Buenos Aires in 1978, which was won by Hungary. Based on the July Elo ranking list, here are the top six countries for this coming Olympiad (Elo average is based on top four players): 1. Russia-2764 (Kasparov 2817, Kramnik 2770, Morozevich 2743, Svidler 2727) 2. Hungary-2682 (Leko 2741, Polgar 2728, Almasi 2644, Gyimesi 2618) 3. Ukraine-2678 (Ponomariov 2722, Ivanchuk 2715, Moiseenko 2640, Volokitin 2638) 4. England-2670 (Adams 2738, Short 2684, McShane 2643, Sadler 2617) 5. France-2657 (Bacrot 2712, Lautier 2666, Fressinet 2637, Thachiev 2615) 6. USA-2635 (Onischuk 2655, Seirawan 2631, Goldin 2624, Kaidanov 2621)

China is expected to dominate the Women’s event followed by Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria and the USA.

TOP CEBUANOS. Here are the top local players based mainly on the Rose Pharmacy chess tournaments: 1. NM Cyril Ortega 2230 2. NM Elwin Retanal 2225 3. Anthony Makinano 2225 4. NM Arnold Cadiz 2220 5. NM Leonardo Alidani 2200 6. NM Rogelio Enriquez 2200 7. Miguel Banibane 2194 8. Ramsy Pedroza 2131 9. Glicerio Pardillo 2125 10. Carlos Moreno III 2116. This list was furnished by Lingky Yap, arbiter and director of all major tournaments here in Cebu.

COLEGIO DEL STO. NIÑO ALUMNI. Tomorrow and Sunday are red letter days for all alumni of the school as it will be celebrating its centennial anniversary.

It will be a double celebration as it will also mark the Golden Anniversary of Class 1954. Several activities have been lined up including games, dinner and fellowship party tomorrow at the Pilgrim Center located inside the school. Holy Mass and registration starts at 8 a.m.

On Sunday, a baccalaureate mass starts at 5 p.m. at the Cebu Grand Convention Center on Arch. Reyes Ave. Dinner and activities to acknowledge all alumni of the school especially Class 1954 follows. Special awards will also be given to the outstanding alumni of the school. For more information, contact Danny Pestaño at 344-0289, Tony Valero at 255-0994 or Maning Villarosa at 261-7184.