Julia Roberts, Humprey Bogart et al.

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño
Chessmoso

ACTRESS Julia Roberts of Pretty Woman and Erin Brokovich fame is reputedly a chess fanatic and has insisted upon chess sets being available on her trailer in all her films. She is said to be blessed with a calculating machine for a brain and can see a dozen moves forward. They say that if she takes timeout to play in tournaments she will give the favorites a run of their money.

Before becoming a movie star, Humphrey Bogart hustled strangers at five-minute chess for 50 cents a game in chess parlors in New York Times Square. In 1943 the FBI prevented him from playing postal chess, thinking the chess notation were secret codes. He was a tournament director of USCF and once drew a game against Samuel Reshevsky in a simultaneous exhibition. His Elo rating was 2100. He made 75 films and chess appears in several of his movies. He and his chessplaying wife Lauren Bacall appeared on the cover of Chess Review in 1945 playing with Charles Boyer. Among his famous movies are Casablanca and The African Queen.

Yoko Ono and her husband, the slain Beatles star John Lennon, were inveterate chess players and played against each other for relaxation. When the Edward Murrow High School team needed funds so it can participate in the state and national championship, Yoko donated a sum of $2,500 to the team. Yoko felt it funny or ironical that a school wouldn’t have money for something as educational as chess. The team was national championfrom 1992-1994.

Singer Barbra Streisand plays chess and is famous among chess players as a classmate of Bobby Fischer in grade school. However, Bobby is not kind to her. In a recent interview over radio in the Philippines when asked if Barbra was her classmate Bobby answered, “I’ve been asked about this. I remembered some mousy looking girl, maybe that was her, I don’t know.”

According to a co-movie actor, George C. Scott was addicted to chess. “Perhaps he was using it as inspiration for his character as a gangster.

We starred together for a few months and never exchanged more than a ‘Good morning,’ if that. He was very much in character, impeccable with his lines, but he only talked to his makeup man, his chess opponent. George would wander over to him after every camera setup to complete the chess move he must have decided on during our take.”

Senior Master Robert Snyder is the teacher of actors Will Smith and Nicolas Cage. Will, star of Men in Black and Independence Day started taking lessons in chess in 1998 while filming Enemy of the State. He regularly studies chess books and shows a lot of talent. Cage, star of The Rock and Face Off, says that he feels chess is good for kids and has included his son as a student of Snyder. Cage and Will are planning to enter chess tournaments in the US soon.

CEPCA INVITATIONAL. Last Saturday our club had a special tournament for members of equal playing strength to make the games more interesting and to give a chance to players of lesser caliber a shot at winning tournaments.

The tournament was for class A and B members only and was held at Handuraw Learning and Leisure Café in Mabolo. Subsequently, there will also be a tournament exclusively for class C and D members also.

The participants, divided into two groups of six, were Norway Lara, Bong San Pascual, Dante Arguelles, Maggi Dionson, Joe Atillo, Jun Catayas, Jun Olis, Fabio Abucejo, Junard Labadan, Marty Baria, Felix Balbona and yours truly.

The format was round robin play for each section, with the top two players advancing to the next round. The top four players then played a round robin among themselves. The surprise winner was Joe Atillo, followed by Dante Arguelles, Jun Olis and Maggi Dionson.

Congrats Joe!

SEPTEMBER TOURNAMENT. The next tournament for Cepca members is on Sept. 19 at the Cebu Youth Chess Center at 1 p.m.

As usual, the participants will be divided into four sections: Armadillo, Buffalo, Cobra and Dinosaur, with different time controls to compensate for different levels of skill.