Spassky to Bush

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño

THERE are a lot of activities this month on the local level. Right off the butt was the Cepca vs. Lapu-Lapu Chess Club match on Aug. 1 at the Cebu Youth Chess Center. The warriors from Mactan won, 19-15. Winning both of their games for Lapu-Lapu were Joel Pacuribot, Aldwin Daculan, Rene Romero, Toto Sapa, Judy Tamala and Kristoffer Querubin. Double pointers for Cepca were Peterson Sia, Tony Cornejo and Carlos Moreno. This is the second time that both clubs met, the last time was in 2001, which was won by Cepca, then held at Foods and Fruits Restaurant.

Scheduled for Aug. 14-16 is the Rose Pharmacy Class C Tournament at the Cebu Youth Chess Center along Jakosalem st. This is open only to non-rated, non-varsity and novice players. Format is nine rounds Swiss and time control is 20 minutes with 10-second increment.

Coming up is newcomer-sponsor Elizabeth Mall, which will hold a tournament on Aug. 21. It is an open tournament, seven rounds Swiss and time control is 15 minutes. Prizes are P3,000, P2,000, and P1, 500. There is no entrance fee but participants are required to purchase P200 of dry goods or P150 food and drinks.

There are also some activities on the school level. Holding chess intramurals on Aug. 11-14 is Southwestern University. It is a team tournament among the different colleges such as medicine, law, engineering, nursing, and is divided into men and women.

Also on tap is the Cebu Doctor’s College Intramurals Chess Team Tournament on Aug. 23-25.

Next on schedule is the Cepca August Tournament slated on the 22nd at the Cebu Youth Chess Center. This tournament is for members only and format is five-round Swiss with time control depending on the member’s level of skill. We also have a new member, Armando Baria an executive and engineer of Aboitizland. Welcome to the Club, Mandy!

INTERNATIONAL. On the international level, Vishy Anand of India just won Dortmund 2004, traditionally Europe’s strongest tournament, over current World champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the finals. Third place went to Russian Peter Svidler, who defeated Peter Leko of Hungary. Fifth was Arkady Naiditsch of Germany, sixth Sergie Rublevsky also of Russia, seventh was defending champion Victor Bologan of Moldavia and last, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine.

One of the strongest-ever tournaments of all time among women, Ural Super tournament, just concluded with Moldavian-French WGM Almira Skripchenko as solo winner with a score of six points. It was a round robin event among 10 players, which included the current world champion GM Antoinette Stefanova of Bulgaria, five-time world champion GM Maia Chiburdinadze of Georgia and Russian champion IM Alisa Galliamova.

$2.6 BILLION CHESS CITY. Chess is really going into big time now with the announcement by Fide President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov to build a $2.6 billion Chess City in Dubai. It will feature 32 buildings designed to mirror the image of a traditional black and white game board and will total an outstanding 64,000 square meters.

“It is Dubai’s destiny to become the center of such a magnificent game.

Dubai will play host to over 60 million amateur and professional chess followers from around the globe annually. They will have a permanent venue where they can congregate and play 24-hour championships throughout the year, while some other 500 million lovers of the game will have the chance to follow the excitement via interactive electronic screens,” he said in a joint statement with the chief executive of Dubai Projects, Sulaiman al- Fahim.

Wow! Do you believe this can be done?

SPASSKY TO BUSH. Boris Spassky has appealed to President George Bush to free Bobby Fischer, now under detention in Japan, in the interest of mercy and in consideration of Bobby’s chess accomplishments. He added that if his request is denied, Bush can put him in prison in the same cell as Fischer and to furnish them a chess set.